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CENTENNIAL HISTORY 



-O F- 



I^IjA ttsmo tjth city, 



-AND- 



CASS COUNTY, NEB. 



By Dr. A. L. CHILD. 

fJULY 4 th ) 1876 



PLATTSMOUTH, NEB : 

HERALD BOOK AND JOB PRINTING HOUSE. 

1877 






*>° 






CENTENNIAL IIISTOKY 



-OF- 



T>L A. TTSMO TITS CITY, 



-AM)- 



CASS COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 



In March, 1876, the U. S. Congress passed a joint resolution recom- 
mending, throughout the republic, a general observance of this Hundredth 
Anniversary of our National Independence; and, that, in addition to the 
usual observances, each county and town cause an Historical Sketch of 
said county or town, from its foundation to the present day, to be pre- 
pared, and that a copy of it lie filed in the Clerk's otlice of the county, as 
also in the office of the Librarian of Congress; to the intent that a com- 
plete record may thus be obtained of the progress of our institutions 
during the first Centennial of their existence. 

This resolution was approved by President Grant on March 13th 
and he issued his proclamation to this effect; further recommending that 
the Governor of each State and Territory also issue a like proclamation 
to the people of said State or Territory, that notice might thus be brought 
directly to the mass of the people. 

In accordance with this recommendation Governor Garber issued his 

PROCLAMATION 

from Lincoln on the 25th of April, 1S76. 



4 HISTORY OF PLATTSMOUTH, AND CASS COUNTY. 

The conception of this idea, with whomsoever it originated, and these 
acts of our authorities are worthy of all praise. The importance and 
value of such a photograph of our country "at this peculiar time, which 
finds the whole community aroused and excited on this subject and on 
every side pondering upon and pouring forth reminiscences of the past, 
will be above all price. It is a most happy time for such a purpose. 

On May 10th, 1876, the 

PLATTSMOUTH CITY COUNCIL, 

through his Honor the Mayor, Gen. Livingston, proposed to me that I 
should undertake to prepare a sketch of the History of the City of Platts- 
mouth, including so much of a history of ( 'ass ( iounty as might be neess- 
sary to show its connection with and relation to the City. 

THE COUNTY COMMISSIONERS 

had neglected to undertake any action under the above recommendations 
for a history of the County, and the City Council, of course, could act 
officially only for the City. As I felt the great importance of a more ex- 
tended histoiy of the County than the action of the Council indicated, I 

obtained permission of that body to enlarge and extend the history of 
the County, and.thus make it a sketch of the 

HISTORY oK CASS COUNTY AND THE CITY OF PLATTSMOUTH.* 

It is needless to say that much very important and interesting mat 
ter requisite for such a sketch is already lost, or exists in such amutilated 
and contradictory form that it is not available. While what was written, 
that still remains, was so imperfectly executed that it conveys but little 
reliable information. And vet our task in Nebraska as compared with 
that of the older States is light and easy. We have the histoiy of the 
youth, but just arrived at the years of manhood (22 years) to record, 
while they have that of the hoary veteran, of from one to two and a half 
centuries. 

In the following sketch much care ami labor have been expended in 
sifting and authenticating the information obtained, and only that record- 
ed which seemed most reliable, yet with the many conflicting recollections 
and imperfect records it will be strange indeed if errors are escaped. 

* May in. is?".— The honorable and efficient Mayor and City Council, after nearly a year 
of intense labor in preparation for the publication nf this history, are, [presume, able tore- 
port progress backward? That is, they have trotted, in a half bushel till they have hist 

sight of all sides of it, and while they are getting across (possibly in time I'm- the next Centen- 
nial) I have concluded to publish it myself, as the said honorable and worthy Council, after 
persistently urging me into a severe and laborious task, refuses to pay a cent for oreven re- 
fund the cash outlay of its preparation. 



HISTORY OK PLATTSMOUTH, AND CASS COUNTY. .) 

A TREATY 

between the U. S. Government and Indians, in which the Indians relin- 
quished their title to the lands bordering on the west bank of the Missouri 
River, was concluded and ratified on April 17, 1854, and proclamation by 
President Pierce, of this treaty and the extinguishment of the Indian title 
was made on the 24th of June following. Previous to this, however, large 
numbers of people, in expectation of these events, had gathered along 
the east bank of the river, ready at a moments warning to "jump the 
river" and drive their stakes for "claims" on the long coveted grounds of 
Nebraska, The Government having up to this date rigorously blockaded 
the passage by military posts on both sides of the river, and this blockade 
seems to have been decidedly more effective than that attempted during 
the year past around the Black Hills. No person was allowed to settle 
or remain on Nebraska soil except by special permit of the Secretary of 
War. 

THE FIRST PERMIT 

of this kind within the bounds of Cass County was obtained by Samuel 
Martin, to establish a Trading Post on the Missouri River, below the 
mouth of the Platte. Un ler this permit, Samuel Martin, assisted by 
James O'Neil and others, early in the Spring of 1853, built the old two 
story Log House, at the foot of Main Street, on the north side, on 
lots and 7 block 31, so wellremembered by all our old settlers. It was 
placed on nearly the same ground now occupied by the brick erected bv 
Wm. Herold in 18(U, and subsequently used as the printing office of the 
Nebraska Herald. The 

"old barracks," 

as this was more generally called, was subsequently used for different 
purposes, stores, offices, post office, ike, till it was removed to make room 
for the brick, The logs of the "Old Barracks" were from an old house 
in Iowa, and brought over on the ice before it broke up in the spring of 
'53. In the fall of '53 James O'Neil also built for the same Samuel Mar- 
tin, the smaller log house, a little north and west of the first, which, in 
later days was largely used for County offices, and where many of us in 
1857 and '58 paid our first tax in Nebraska; which, in consequence of 
illegality of proceedings in assessment, was subsequently refunded. 



6 HISTORY OF PLATTSMOUTH, AND CASS COUNTY. 

The occupation of this Trading Post in the spring and summer of 
'53 by him, made 

SAMUEL MARTIN THE FIRST WHITE SETTLER IN CASS COUNTY. 

On the extinguishment of the Indian title. June 24, 1854, a rush was 
made for the most valuable claims, and hut few days passed before most 
of the more desirable lands in Cass County, near the Missouri River, were 
staked and marked with the claimant's names. 

I do not propose to cumber this record with the names of those who 
came here simply for the purpose of speculating- in "Claims," and who 
often forced the real pioneer to pay two, three, or half a dozen prices for 
his Homestead, and then returning to his home in other States, or else 
passing on to repeat the same process in newer fields, left the pioneers to 
fight their own battles and endure all the privations and hardships inci- 
dent to such life. The claims of these two classes to the regard of the 
later population of Nebraska are widely divers". 

THE SPECULATOR AND CLAIM JUMPER, 

in violation of all right and justice, and almost invariably by perjury, 
seized upon the just and legal rights of the real settler, and by forcing 
him to pa_v two or more prices for his land, thus stripped him of his small 
means which were necessary to enable him successfully to accomplish the 
task he had undertaken, and to him, living meanwhile in a "dugout" (but 
little better than a hole in the ground) scantily clothed f and oft'times in 
need of food he could not obtain, the real pioneer, (whose name let us 
honor) we owe the Nebraska of 1876. 

Before the legal organization of the Territory of Nebraska, some 2"><i 
men had penciled their names on claim stakes within what is now Cass 
County. As this matter of 

"claims" and "club law" 

which attended it, is not as familiar to the later population as it was to the 
old settler, a few words in explanation may not be amiss. 

a claim 

was any subdivision of a section (a square mile) as, a half, a fourth, or 
an eighth of a section; the lines conforming to and parallel with the lines 
of the section, if already surveyed. If not surveyed, the claimant fixed 
his own boundaries, but after the survey was made by the Government he 
must adapt his lines to those of the survey. 



HISTORY OF PL ATTS MOUTH, AND CASS COUNTY. I 

The U. S. laws allowed a claim only of 160, 120, 80, or 4<> acres, un- 
less it was in ease of a fraction, when the whole fraction might be claimed. 
The Clubs generally allowed and protected claims of 32Q acres, looking 
to further legislation by Congress to authorize such entries. 

TO TAKE A CLAIM 

was to stake out any of the above described quantities and write the 
claimant's name and perhaps a description of the land upon the stakes, 
then have tins description filed and recorded by the Secretary of the Club, 
and this constituted a "claim." 

to "jump a claim" 
was to remove the stakes already set, and put up others with the jumper's 
name upon them. 

CLUB LAW 

was the personal government of the settlement by the settlers themselves 
in Club meeting assembled. 

Before the organization of our Territorial Government it was found 
necessary to have some tribunal for the settlement of disputes, and each 
settlement defining its own boundaries formed itself into a "Club" for this 
purpose. A President, Secretary and Treasurer were elected, a Constitu- 
tion ami Bye Laws adopted, and provision made for regular and special 
meetings. The Secretary kept a journal of the proceedings of the meet- 
ings, aiso a ''Claim Record." To make a claim valid it must first conflict 
with no other member's rights, and then be recorded with the number of 
section, township and range, also the date. Most of the clubs also required 
the positive assurance that it was intended for a bona tide settlement. 
These clubs varied much in character, according todocation. The earlier 
settlements near the river were largely composed of speculators, who often 
equaled, if they did not outnumber, the real settlers: while farther back 
from the river the number of pioneers largely predominated. Of course 
the different clubs varied in character. On the one extreme self interest 
ruled largely in most of the proceedings;; while on the other the general 
interest and welfare of the settlement was the ruling principle. 

An offender against the laws or decisions of the club was generally 
summarily dealt with. There was no machinery for assessing lines; no 
jails or prisons; hence little or no attempt was made to grade the punish- 
ment according to the offence. In the clubs controled by real settlers the 
offender had a fair trial and was informed what he must do to retain his 
membership, and the penalty of refusal to conform at once to the judgment 



8 niSTORY OF PLATTSM OCTET, AND CASS COUNTY. 

of the club. The penalty of obstinate and unyielding - disobedience was 
"Removal from the Territory," or in the language of the day to be "Put 
over the River," and in extreme cases the word "over" did not reach the 
other side. Very few had the hardihood to resist the judgment of the 
club, for it was well known that persistent offenders would be so effectually 
removed that they could cause no more trouble. 

There was probably but one case in Cass County when it became 
necessary to resort to 

THIS EXTREME PENALTY. 

The one, but too vividly remembered yet by many citizens of Platts- 
mouth, when four unhappy men were started on their last journey over the 
river, but their arrival on the other side has never been reported, nor 
have they been seen or heard from since. 

Other clubs had hard cases to deal with, but they yielded or left be- 
fore coming to this last fearful resort. 

Much has been said and published over the country of these clubs. 
They have been called 

MOPS, LYNCHERS, 

and many other bad names. Some of this talk was probably justified and 
deserved by wrongful and abusive acts, but in the main it was not. Some 
of them, in the vicinity of the Missouri River, were largely composed of 
speculators and outlaws, congregated here and remaining only long- 
enough to secure claims, perhaps several, raise what they could upon 
them, and then return to their homes. Devoid of truth, honor or integ- 
rity they obtained titles to land by perjury. They had no interest in the 
country except what they carried out of it in their pockets. Sometimes 
outnumbering the real' settlers in the clubs they overruled its action in 
their own interest, and thus brought disgrace and scandal upon "club law." 
But the settlements more remote from the border were less infested by 
this class, and here club law, although very expensive from the amount 
of time required of each member in personal attendance, formed the best 
government, in my judgment, that I ever knew. 

Before seeking Nebraska I had heard much of the lawless crowd con- 
gregated here, and really expected to find little else than ruffians and 
blacklegs on my arrival. On the evening after 1 first saw Cass County I 
learned that a club meeting was to be held near by on the same evening. 
Full of curiosity, I attended the meeting, expecting to see an assemblage 
of anything hut men. As they gathered in, to the number of some forty- 
five or fifty, I watched closely for the cloven hoofs, and scanned the faces 



niSTORV OF PLATTSMOUTH, AND CASS COI'XTY. 9 

for the features of the outlaw and ruffian. But my search was in vain, T 
discovered none of the characteristics for which I sought. I was much 
surprised, and still more so by the tone, order and character of the pro- 
ceedings — and after some two years' of membership in that club I should 
to-day have no hesitation in submitting any question in which I had an 
interest, of whatever importance, even of life or death, to that club, in 
preference to any legal court I have ever known, either in Nebraska or 
elsewhere. 

THE SPECULATOR 

has been the curse of Nebraska. Not only did he demoralize our clubs. 
His object was "claims," and no course, however vile or rascally, was too 
low if it led to this object. He sneaked around through the settlements 
talking of his "great desire for a fixed home," of his "wife and children 
who would lie delighted to come into such a settlement''' thus adding to 
the society and helping to build up schools, churches, roads, bridges, &c. 
This, he too well knew, was the very weak side of the pioneer, who, with 
his wife and children were homesick and lonely. It was impossible with 
his scanty means to build school houses and support schools, and it was 
a severe trial to see his children growing up without education, Many 
were also deeply anxious for the gospel privileges left behind; and bridg- 
es, an absolute necessity, it was often impossible to supply — and more 
settlers only could supply these demands, and remove the evils. To ob- 
tain them and this relief he threw his cabin or "Dug-out" door wide open 
to strangers, divided his last meal with them, perhaps not knowing where 
the next could be obtained, gave up his bed and slept upon the floor, if he 
was so fortunate as to have one, left his work and went out over the prairie 
to hunt up a claim for the promising stranger; or perhaps showed him 
the line one he had [licked out and been writing back to the old home 
urging the relative or friend to come out and occupy — anything and every 
thing to increase the settlement. 

Well, our wolf in sheep's clothing, hugging himself ami chuckling 
over his own shrewdness and the greenness of the pioneer, procures four 
stones, puts them in his pocket, and goes out to take possession of his 
claim. He drops the stones at the supposed four corners of a house, takes 
a small stick, splits one end, puts a bit of window glass in the split and 
sticks it on. one side of the house lor a window; borrows a blanket or two 
and perhaps a bit of plank from his host and goes out at night to his new 
home, throws down his plank, places Ins blanket over it and lavs down to 
sleep Then, with the most positive assurance that in so many days or 



10 HISTORY OF PLATTSMODTH, AND CASS COUNTY. 

weeks he will be back with his family to settle down for good, he leaves 
for the land office and solemnly swears that he has taken a claim, so and 
so, that he has built a dwelling house upon it with glass windows and :i 
plank floor, that it is for the sole purpose of a home, that lie wishes to 
enter it, and that it is his home and he has moved into it as such. 
He gets his duplicate, steps out, and leaves for his home and family, if he 
has one, congratulating himself on his sharpness as a speculator. Me 
has entered a fine tract of land at a cost of sixty to eighty cents per :icn\ 
which he assures himself he will soon sell for $10, $20, or perhaps .$"»(> per 
acre. 

Some may think this is an exaggeration, or overdrawn sketch. But 
if you doubt it ask any old pioneer for the facts in the case, and he will 
duplicate it as many times as you wish. The result of such operations 
to the pioneer was disheartening and disastrous. Hi' was thus gradually 
hemmed in and blockaded by speculators' lands, which, by reason of fall- 
ing prices, remained on their hands unsold and unimproved. He had l>v 
his own generosity and kindness helped these vampires to isolate himself 
from neighbors; and he had not only to paddle his own canoe alone, but 
he was forced by long and severe privation and toil, gradually improving 
and enhancing the value of his own land, to also paddle the canoe of his 
adversary, by raising the value of surrounding lands till they could he 
sold at a satisfactory price. 

And yet this movement did not result in such entire success to the 
speculator as he had anticipated. He overdid himself. The times were 
not favorable to the rise of land values; and again, he grabbed so 
largely and crippled the pioneers and hemmed them in so el isely that they 
could not open up and improve land enough to increase the values of sur 
rounding lands to much extent. Hence many were obliged to sell at 
prices far below the cost of entering, interest, and taxes. And large 
quantities are held to-day in Cass County by those who have nearly if 
not quite lost all hope of ever recovering the money expended. 

But for these men there would have been to-day but \\'\\\ if any, 
acres of unimproved land in ('ass County, and the county would have 
been millions richer than it now is. For twenty years emigrants have 
been rolling through our county who would gladly have pitched their 
tents with us, and often with large capital. But there was no room for 
them. 

Am I not fully justified in denouncing the land speculator as a curse 
to our count v? 



HISTOKY 01 PLATTSMOUTIT, AND CASS COUNTY. 11 

From my own recollections aided by several kind friends in different 
parts of the county, I give the names and time of settlement of a few of 
the pioneers. Many of the first on the ground in several of the precincts 
were merely speculators, or of a transitory character, selling- out their 
claims and passing on, [ therefore omit them; many entire precincts and 
settlements are omitted also, as letters of inquiiy remain unanswered. 

In Martin's Precinct, now Plattsmouth, the following names are 
found in 18.14, viz.: Samuel Martin, Jacob Adams, Win. H. Shafer, J. W. 
O'Neil, W. Mickelwait, C. H. Wolcott, Levi Walker, Stephen Wiles, A.J. 
Todd, and Wm. Gullion. 

Rock Bluffs — N. K. Hobbs, Win. Young, F. M. Young, sen., Win. 
Gilmour, sen., Abram Towner, Benj. Albin, J. McF. Haygood, 1854. 

Four Mile Crekk — Lorenzo Johnson, 1855; Thomas Thomas, Wm, 
L Thomas, Samuel Thomas, Peter Leaver. Capt. D. L. Archer, 1856. 

Eight Milk Grove — John Scott. 1855; John Mntz, Geo. S. Ruby, J. 
P. Ruby, 1N5C. 

Louisville — Adam Ingram, James Ingram, 1850; A. L. Child. 1857; 
Wm. Snyder. Conrad Ripple. Pat. Blessingtou, Fred. Stohlman, 1858. 

Avoca — John Kanoba, J. G. Hanson, 1850; Amos Teft, sen.. Amos 
Toft, jr.. Orlando Teft, 1857: Geo. W. Adams, 1859. 

Liberty — Joseph Van Horn, 1854; Samuel Kirkpatrick, 1855; L. 
Sheldon, J. F. Buck, Stephen Hobson, 1856. 

The dates indicate the time when the pioneer planted his stakes for 
a home, although his family might have still been left behind; yet then 
and there he identified his interests with that of the county, as proved by 
continued residence up to the present time. Some, however, have changed 
their residence to other parts of the county, and several stood faithfully at 
their posts till mustered out of service for their final settlement. 

As before said, the Indian title was extinguished in June of 1854, and 
soon after Francis Burt was appointed Governor of Nebraska Territory, 
and Thomas B. Cuming, Secretary. On October 10th, 1854, Gov. Burt 
arrived and made his headquarters at the old Mission House, Bellevue 
but delayed in his arrival by sickness, lie continued to fail till Oct, 18th, 
when he died. T. B. Cuming, then acting Governor, immediately set 
about preparing the machinery of a Territorial Government. He appoint- 
ed Marshals and ordered an enumeration of the population. The enu- 
meration to lie commenced Oct. 24th, 1854 and returns to l»e made on or 



12 niSTORY OF PLATTSMOUTH, AND CASS COUNTY. 

before November 1st. His instructions to the Marshals were to be very 
cautious and careful to include no one in this enumeration but actual ami 
bona Jirfe settlers, with stringent oaths in case of doubt. 

Under this census Cass County returned inhabitants. On this 

enumeration he apportioned, out of the tweiUv-six representatives allowed 
for the Territorial Legislature by the Organic act, three members to ('ass 
County, and one Councilman out of thirteen, and ordered an election to 
be held for a Legislature on December 12th, 1854. In the proclamation 
calling this 

FIRST ELECTION, 

Cass County was described as "the County lying between the Platte River 
on the north and the Weeping Water on the south, and from the Missouri 
River on the east to the limit of the ceded. lands on the west" (about 100 
miles.) It was divided into 

TWO VOTING PRECINCTS, 

viz., Martin's precinct, voting at the Old Barracks, with James O'Neil, 
Thos. G. Palmer, and Stephen Wiles, as Judges; and T. S. Gaskill and. 
L. G. Todd, Clerks, and the second, "Kanosh" precinct, to vote at the 
house of Col. Thompson, J. S. Griffith, Thos. B. Ashly and L. Young. 
Judges; and Benj. B. Thompson and Win. II. Davis, Clerks. At this 
first election in Cass County on Dec. 12, 1854, I find the poll hooks for 
Martin's precinct, (now Plattsmouth) and the number of voters 78. The 
Kanosh p<>U hooks I do not find, hut infer from figures and calculations 
made about the election, that there were some 60 votes polled there. 

N. P. Giddings was elected as 

Nebraska's first delegate in congri ss. 

Lafayette Nuckolls, Councilman from Cass County, and, J. M. Latham. 
J. D. N. Thompson and Win. Kempton, Representatives. It is said that 
this J. M. Latham sold out the interests of his constituents I'm- :i consid- 
eration, and not long after died drunk in a ditch, in St. Joe. 

Of the voters whose names are recorded at this first election in Mar- 
tin's precinct, who are still with us or remained with us till the close of 
their lives, I find, Samuel Martin, who died three days after, viz.. Dec. 
15 1854. thus being not only the first white settler in the County, but 
filled the first white settler's grave. He was buried on the the hill where 
several other graves now are, in Young A- Hayes Addition, west of the 
High School building. * 

* The bones disturbed a few years since while grading the street east of the Episcopal 
Church were those of a woman passing through, westward, who died and was buried here in 

1852 or Is,",::. 



HISTORY OF PLATTSMOUTH, AND CASS COUNTY. 1 3 

The other voters were Jacob Adams, Wm. H. Shafer, Broad Cole, 
Wm. Gullion, James O'Neil, W. Miekelwait, John Watson, Henry Watson, 
Joshua Murray, A. J. Todd, Samuel Hahn, L. G. Todd, Levi Walker, 
Stephen Wiles, Joshua Gappen, and 63 others, most of whom had no legal 
right to a vote but still remained and intended to remain citizens of other 
States. 

Acting Governor Cumings convened 

THE FIRST LEGISLATURE 

January I<>, 1855, which adopted a large part of the Iowa Civil Code, 
which gave the Probate Judge a very important part to play in the admin- 
istration of county affairs. This Legislature also further defined the 
boundaries of Cass County, as follows, "On the north by the Platte river, 
east by the Missouri, south by Pierce County, (now Otoe), and extending 
west twenty-four miles on the south line. Pierce County, the northern 
line of which now became the southern boundary of Cass, was to com- 
mence one and a half miles north of the mouth of Weeping Water, ami 
thence run twenty four miles west. 

The Register of Deeds was required to act as Clerk to the Probate 
Judge, and the two performed all the present duties of County Commis- 
sioners, Recorder and County Clerk. On March 30th the Governor ap- 
pointed 

ABRAM TOWNEU PROBATE JUDGE, 

and Tims. J. Palmer Register of Deeds, as also Thomas B. Ashley, Jus- 
tire of the-Peace for Kanosh Precinct. On the same day Judge Towner 
opened his Court and by order divided Cass County into two precincts by 
the following lines: "Beginning at the mouth of Rock Creek, then up 
the Creek to the main fork near John Clemmons 7 , thence up the north 
fork to tiie old emigrant road, and thence westward along the same to the 
west line of the county." North of this line to be Plattsmouth Precinct, 
and south of it Rock Bluffs. He also ordered the 

FIRST COUNTY ELECTION 

to be held on April 10th, 1855, and appointed James O'Neil, Elias Gibbs, 
and Stephen Wiles, as Judges, and Charles Walcott and P. Shannon as 
Clerks of Plattsmouth Precinct; and Thos. B. Ashley, Frank McCall and 
Curtis Rakes, Judges, and Wm. H. Davis and John Griffith, Clerks of 
Rock Bluffs precinct. No returns or poll books are to be found of this 
election, but I learn from Judge Towner that L. G. Todd and Allen Wat- 
son were elected as Justices of the Peace for Plattsmouth Precinct; and 
Thos. B. Ashley and Thos. Thompson for Rock Bluffs; and Bela White 
Countv Treasurer. 



14 HISTORY OF PLATTSMOUTH, AND CASS COUNTY. 

On May 1st, 1855, Thos. J. Palmer was removed from the office of 
Register of Deeds, because he was not a resident of the county, and Win. 
H. Davis appointed in his place. 

June 4th, 1855, A. C. Towner, previously appointed Sheriff by the 
Governor, was ordered to assess the county. Of this assessment I find 
no record. The first Legislature (of January 16, to March 1(1, 1855) pro- 
vided for an annual general election on the first Tuesday in November, 
for which the Probate Judge was required to appoint Judges and Clerks. 

At this, the second general election, H. 0. Wolph was elected Probate 
Jud^e, and Wm. Young, County Surveyor. No record is to be found of 
the members of the Legislature, but there was a tie vote on Sheriff. Allen 
Watson and Moses Jackson were elected Justices for Plattsniouth Pre- 
cinct, and Mathew Hughes for Rock Bluffs. A special election was order- 
ed for a Sheriff, with a second tie as the result; and a third election was 
ordered. A little skillful maneuvering this time detached a U'w of Mr. 
Lucas' supporters on a surveying trip, and returned W. R. Ellington as 
Sheriff. 

On January 7th, 185(5, H. C. Wolph entered upon his duties as Pro- 
bate Judge. On March 3d he divided Rock Bluffs Precinct into Cass- 
ville and Kanosha. He also appointed a Gj'and and Petit Jury prepara- 
tory to the holding of a District Court in the County in April. The 
names of these jurors are missing. 

Judge Edward Harden presided at this 

FIRST SESSION OF THE DISTRICT COURT 

in Cass County in April of 1856, and A. C. Towner seems to have acted 
as Sheriff, although W. R. Ellington was elected in November previous. 

On May 5th, 1856, Sheriff Ellington was ordered to assess the 
County; and on Sept, 10 on petition of several citizens of Clay and Lan- 
caster Counties, the Probate Judge created the precinct of Chester, and 
on the same day divided Cass County into three Commissioners Districts 
named Plattsniouth, Kanosha and Cassville, preparatory to the election 
of County Commissioners, as the Legislature of 1855'56 had repealed the 
previously adopted Iowa Code, and provided for a Boaid of County Com- 
missioners. Hence, with the general election of November 4, 1856, or 
rather on January 1st 1857, when the newly elected officers entered upon 
their duties, the large powers of the Probate Court came to an end. 

The choice of lands in 1854 was confined almost entirely to the vicin- 
ity of the Missouri River; few, if any, were taken at any considerable 
distance from it. 



niSTOKV OF PLATTSMOUTH, AND CASS COUNTY. 15 

Id L855 a few settlers reached out to Four Mile Creek, Eight Mile 
Grove and a short distance up the valley of the Weeping Water. But in 
1856 there was a more general extension. The several earlier settlements 
were much enlarged, and in addition, the Weeping Water up to and above 
the Falls, Cedar, Thompson's Fountain, and Salt Creek, had considerable 
sell lements. 

/ 

THE FRONTIER WAVE 

of settlers has rarely if ever become fixed and made a permanent settle- 
ment. After a i'rw years, and sometimes only months, for recuperation 
and rest; it rises again and rolls on toward the West. 

This class of pioneers has held a prominent position in our National 
History from the earlier settlements on the Atlantic to the present day. 
A class luil too generally intolerant of the restraints of the law, order, or 
civilization; and not greatly noted for love of industry, truth, right or 
justice. Vet including many sturdy, upright, and honest men; who can- 
not endure the artificial trammels of society, nor the technical quibbles of 
law, by which honest men so often suffer, and rogues and villains fatten. / 

This class has generally gathered on the western border of the settle- 
ments, (as there was always room there but not always in anv other 
direction), and as the hated habits, forms and powers approached they 
receded from them. Like Cooper's old "Leatherstocking," they could not 
endure the white man's clearing or his wasteful ways. 

They have moved, moved — and moved again; till the great barrier, 
the Pacific Ocean, .'5. 0(10 miles from their starting point, has arrested the 
movements of some but not of all, for some, with a great bound, have 
reached the Sandwich Islands, and others, with a still greater, have landed 
in the Russian possessions in northwestern Asia. 

Many of this class, moved by their natural impulse, and others, un- 
der the excitement of the newly discovered gold fields, left the County 
from 1858 to '60-'61. But the vacancies were filled, or perhaps overfilled 
in the two or three following years, by the crowd from the east, hurrying 
from the "wrath to come" in an expected draft into the army. 

In all new settlements hardship, privation, and severe toil are almost 
always necessary attendants, and though often talked of, and most acutely 
felt by the old pioneer, are seldom realized by the inexperienced hearer. 
Some of these were peculiar to our situation. In 1854, '55, '56 money 
was plenty and easily obtained by those who had means. But probably 
here, for the first lime, many realized that money, although the pocket 



16 HISTORY OF PLATTSMOUTFI, AND CASS COUNTY. 

might be full, would not stop the cravings of hunger nor shield the body 
from the lieree winter winds and snows. We were not on the frontier of 
an old productive country, but on a frontier of a frontier. 

A new settlement is usually composed of industrious hardworking 
men and women, nearly, if not all, bees, and no drones. Our population 
was at least one half non-producing speculators, drones, who consumed 
the larger part of what the bees produced or procured. They were here 
to make mone}', by taking claims and selling them at large profits. To 
plat cities on paper, sell corner lots, and then perhaps to find a location 
to drop the plat upon, aud some never found an abiding place on which to 
rest. While many with a price current for lots, quoted daily, never had 
a building upon them. And although a legion of them in this county 
nourished under wonderful acts of incorporation, had splendid and costly 
lithographs and engravings of them, exhibiting their magnificent parks 
and public buildings, while many held the location of the State or Terri- 
torial Capital, none had less than the County Seat and Count} 7 buildings. 

Thousands of dollars were invested in these cities, in which some 
body surely made money, and just as surely somebody lost, for to-day, 
with the exception of some half dozen villages, their names and locations 
are only in the history of the past. 

This large portion of our population with ready means secured a 
large proportion of the provisions and other necessary articles which 
could be obtained, and left the pioneer to get what he could, which was 
often little or nothing. Under these circumstances, with but few real 
producers, and those necessarily much restricted in their fanning opera 
tions by the first demand of a shelter for the family, where the'.' was but 
little if any material to construct one of; and the further task of providing 
food during at least the first year from outside his farm, and often noth- 
ing to be obtained at any price within a day's travel; and with the average 
pioneer but little if any surplus of money to buy with, and you will see 
he had a hard row to hoe. 

Permit.me to give you a brief history of one pioneer of 1856, who 
well represents the class except in one point. He brought more money 
with him than the average pioneer, hence could command assistance and 
necessaries which many could not. Money enabled him to defend rights 
which others were obliged to yield to the rapacity of the speculator; and 
again, he was near a point in the county where such supplies as could be 
obtained were more easily reached. At some forty live years of age, he 
had sold his farm in an eastern state, which he had cut out of the solid 
timber, and this is generally considered equivalent to the life work of a 



HISTORY OF PLATTSMOtTTH, AND CASS COUNTY. 17 

man, viz. : to clear up and put in running order a heavy timbered farm. 
The/man who has done it is rarely worth much, physically, after. 

^ He crossed the Missouri with a Large family late in the summer of 
1856 with some $2800 in his pocket. But the speculator was ahead of 
him. He could find no land unclaimed without going - far out from the 
river. He therefore yielded his rights to these robbers and gave them. 
.$305 for the privilege of buying a homestead. That is lie bought a claim 
of them and then set himself to work to make a home/ A few cotton- 
wood boards from Clark's saw mill, over near St. Mary's, in Iowa, enabled 
him to build a shauty 10x15 feet square, a rather roomy place for a family 
of eight or nine; with household goods, beds, furniture, &c; but he soon 
found large opportunities to fill up the extra room with travelers, way- 
farers, and new settlers, who else would have been forced to camp on the 
open prairie. 

He had brought with him a large load of provisions, but his neigh- 
bors, less provident or able, had nearly or quite exhausted their stores, 
and as only chance supplies could be obtained from passing boats, he was 
obliged to divide out, so that as winter approached his stores were nearly 
exhausted also. A much traveled road passed his place, and a constant 
train of new comers, and old settlers from more distant settlements were 
continually calling for food and often a night's lodging. It was not the 
habit of the pioneers to pull in the latch string, and the hungry traveler 
must have las meal, even if it left hut a scanty s upply for the family on 
the morrow. Further supplies must be had, and his team was sent (not 
down into Egypt,) hut over to the already badly ravaged land of Iowa. 
After considerable search, however, they were successful in loading their 
wagons. But on their return, on reaching the river, they found it impass- 
able from floating ice. A cold snap since they passed over had filled the 
river with ice, and our frien 1 Mickelwait, who then as now ran the ferry, 
a Hat boat at that time, dared not venture in the heavy ice. Well, there 
was nothing to do but to — wait. Meantime, our pioneers, and many oth- 
ers, nearing the point of destitution of food, were watching and waiting 
on the bank of the river for the time when the boat would venture out. 
At length the time came, after days of delay. The boat ventured out and 
landed the teams in safety on the Nebraska shore, and the threatened 
famine was for a time postponed. 

In March of 1857, after much difficulty from high water and peril 
from floating ice, he succeeded in reaching the Land Office at Omaha, en- 
tered his land and received his duplicate. But his troubles werv far from 



18 niSTora" op plattsmouth, and cass county. 

over yet. A gentleman( ?) speculator, a member of the club, fancied he 
saw a chance for a speculation. In a club meeting, of which both parties 
were members, he alleged he had a prior claim to the entered land. A 
majority of the club were speculators and sympathised with the brother 
shark. The Record book bearing the evidence of our pioneer's member- 
ship and rights under club law, very* conveniently disappeared and was 
not to be found, and, after a one-sided investigation, the club decided that 
the pioneer was not a member of the club and had no rights which the 
club were bound to respect, and that he must deed 160 acres of the land 
to the speculator. He had first paid a heavy price to the speculator for it 
as a claim, then paid the full price to the Government and held the Land 
Office Duplicate for the money and now must yield it to the speculator. 
It was fully proved in the club trial that the speculator held like claims 
on over 1000 acres, while no club law authorized over 320 acres, and that 
was double the amount allowed by U. S. law. But this produced no effect, 
the judgment had been decided upon before the trial took place, and now 
the deed must be made or the offender would be "put over the river." 

A council was held by the real pioaeers, and it was decided to sub- 
mit to no further outrage of this character. They were well armed; they 
saw that their homes, families, and even lives were at stake, and further- 
more they were of the class who do not scare easily. The club, that 
is the speculator portion, aide 1 by such others as they could control as 
they advanced to put their judgment in execution, learned that they were 
to be received at the muzzles of rifles and revolvers and that some thirty 
shots were ready to greet them from under a good cover. Further, our 
speculator friends well knew that the small ban 1 thus entrenched and 
armed were the very men to offer very decisive arguments in defense of 
not onl}' their rights but their lives. This information and the situation 
had a very soothing effect upon the speculator an 1 his allies; they con 
eluded it was not a good time to try on the "over the river" movement. 
Rut the judgment of the club — as inflexible as the laws of the Meles and 
Persians — what could be done with the judgment? An adviser, long since 
gone to his last rest, suggested further search for the lost record book, 
which might develope grounds for the removal of the judgment. This 
kind of a crowd, generally much more ready to creep out of some backdoor 
than stand up and make a fair fight, readily seized upon the suggestion. 
The Record was as conveniently found as it had been previously lost, and 
lo! all was found right and plain; the pioneer was after all a member, his 
claims were all right, and the judgment was reversed. 



HISTORY OF PL ATTS MOUTH, AND CASS COIN TV. 19 

But the speculator, mortified and disgusted by the failure of his 
scheme, resolved to try it on again, but in a shape less perilous to his own 
person. He appealed to the Land Olflee and tried to break the entry of 
the lands. But there, although he succeeded in causing the pioneer an 
expense of some hundreds of dollars in defending his rights, he again 
met with a signal defeat, and soon after in great disgust left the settle- 
ment; and the grief at his departure was not great, even with the wife 
and children he then and there deserted. 

The general features of this case are the same as those of very many, 
only that with less or no means they could not defend and maintain their 
rights, where money was required, and to procure necessaries of life and 
buildings was more difficult. Unable perhaps to procure any material for 
building, they resorted to the "dug out"' till they could raise the means 
of living above ground. The "dug out" was a room excavated generally 
in the side of a hill, a couple of rails or posts make a door frame, and a 
wall of square cut prairie turf forms the front and tills up the angles be- 
tween the front wall and the side hill. A roof, sloping back on to the hill, 
of rails or poles covered by a thick layer of prairie grass and then with 
earth, makes a not, uncomfortable shelter for summer or winter. But 
they arc not particularly nice or clean especially in long or heavy rain 
storms. 

A prominent feature in our pioneer life from 1854 to '59-'60 was 

THE IXDIAXS. 

The Indians in early days were in the habit of roaming through the 
settlements from the single individual up to fifteen or twenty in number. 
I have no knowledge of their ever attempting any personal injury to any 
settler in our county. Still, with the record of their horrible and savage 
deeds in most all of the early settlements of our country, handed down 
and too vividly remembered, they were a source of great terror to women 
and children, as also to husbands and fathers lest they should attack the 
family in his absence; and, possibly, many of them were not so totally 
devoid of personal fear; but then it would never do to own this. 

The Indians xcry much preferred the absence of the men in their 
visits to the settlers'' houses, as they found that the women when unpro- 
tected by the men were much more ready to yield to their ever unsatisfied 
and unlimited demand for food. In a settlement, however large, they 
would enter every house they could get into, and eat all they could get, 
repeating this operation from house to house. If they found a door open 
<)!• unfastened they walked in. asking no leave, and then it was "eat," 



20 IIISTORY OF PLATTSMOUTH, AND CASS COUNTY. 

"eat," "eat," or if the} 7 could command a little more English "Me heap 
hungry." If they were seen in their approach, and the door fastened, 
they would seek a window through which the family inside could be seen, 
flatten their noses and faces up against the glass, and there, with the pa- 
tience only of an Indian, often stand for hours watching the proceedings 
of the family, till the poor woman, frightened almost to death, would un- 
fasten the door and feed them in order to get rid of them. 

The Indians cannot well be dismissed without a brief reference to our 

INDIAN SCARES, 

which were generally the result only of panic founded on the morbid Tears 
and imagination, fostered for a century or more by the barbarities of 
these cumberers of the ground. The several scenes connected with them 
made an impression too deep on the memories of the people to be soon 
forgotten, but the particular dates are much mixed up. As these, how- 
ever, are not very essential I give some of them as near their time and 
order as I am able to trace them. 

THE WHITMORE SCARE 

occurred late in the summer or fall of 1S5G. A Mr. Whitmore had built 
a cabin in the vicinity of the Salt Basin, in Lancaster County, and settled 
there with wife and children. Mr. Whitmore left for the river on busi- 
ness, and was soon followed by his wife and children in the night, drag- 
gled and wearied almost to death by a foot race to escape from the In- 
dians. She made a fearful report of the atrocities and fearful deeds of 
the savages in the abuse of herself, destruction of furniture, ripping open 
feather beds, scattering the feathers in the wind, <fcc, &c. Her tale spread 
on all sides as she advanced toward the river, supplemented and enlarged 
by all kinds of variations that fear and imagination could supply; and as 
it reached the river settlements it was indeed a fearful one. The number 
of Indians had increased to hundreds and thousands, and not a house was 
left unburned or a scalp on its original owner's head. Companies were 
formed in hot haste at Plattsmouth, Rock Bluffs and Nebraska City, and 
they hastened towards the scene of devastation. Advance scouts, sent out 
to reconoiter, met the companies and reported the whole thing to be a 
scare] It is still a matter of dispute whether any damage at all was done 
by the Indians. We have very positive evidence on one side, that the 
first parties on the ground,- found Whitmore' s house and goods all sale 
and unharmed; and that the scare all originated in the usual visit of the 
Indians for food, but that Mrs. Whitmore, terribly frightened, run for her 
life. 



niSTORV OP PLATTSMOUTH, AND CASS COUNTY. '21 

On the other side, we have just as positive testimony that furniture 
was found broken up, beds ripped open, feathers scattered, &c.,but no one 
testiiies to personal injury. 

A sequel to this scare, or a transaction following it, was the collision 
of a small company of settlers in the following February, with about the 
same number of Indians, between Eight Mile Grove and Mt. Pleasant; in 
which the whites attacked the Indians, with no other excuse that I can 
hear of, than that these Indians might have been connected with the pre- 
vious scare. The whites tired upon the Indians and broke one Indian's 
arm; took two or three prisoners and some twelve or fifteen ponies. The 
prisoners were brought to Plattsmouth and the ponies were put where 
they would perhaps do the most good; or where they would be safe from 
observation. 

These raiders were soon followed by a company of some one hundred 
Indians with three chiefs. They took great care, in passing hy houses or 
settlements to keep the band from offering any injury or wrong; and on ar- 
rival in Plattsmouth. demanded their men and ponies. After getting an 
interpreter down from Bellevue, and having a "talk," they were allowed to 
take the prisoners, and hunt up and take their ponies if they could find 
them. They camped down in the bend just above Rocky Point for sev- 
eral days, and succeeded in recovering nearly if not all of their ponies, 
and then quietly returned. 

I have no great affection for an Indian, but I cannot but think that 
in this case somebody ought to have suffered some, and that body, not an 
Indian either. 

During the latter part of the war in '63 and '64, reports were current 
that the rebels were tampering with the Indians, and exciting them to at- 
tack our settlements. These reports caused much anxiety and uneasi- 
ness, especially in the more exposed neighborhoods; and almost every 
settlement had formed regular organizations for drill, defence, rendez- 
vous, &c. 

In the fall of '64, word swept through the county with more than the 
speed of Sir Walter Scott's "Cross of Fir6," that Indians were on Salt 
( Ireek in large force,perpetrating their usual atrocities, and sweeping down 
towards the Missouri, with the purpose of exterminating the white settle- 
ments. The writer, whom please consider your "War Correspondent" for 
the hour, hastened to the rendezvous at Louisville, where some forty-live 
men were soon gathered, all armed and equipped for war. But for the 
presence of some upstarts who called themselves "Veterans'" from services 



22 HISTORY OF PLATTSMOUTn, AND CASS COUNTY. 

in the civil war, then near its close, your correspondent might have ob- 
tained some befitting office in this movement, (a Sutlership at least). 

But with all his merits and qualification over shadowed, he remain- 
ed in the ranks. 

We were at once placed in position, outposts established, and every- 
thing made read}' to recieve the savage foe and give them 

Crowds of fugitives were rushing past, some with some household 
goods, others with none, some with proper clothing and others quite the 
reverse. But all with an eye over their shoulder, while lashing and 
punching up the team; urged to stop and help in the coming fight, "No!" 
u No!" they must take care of the women and children. Well, where were 
the Indians? "Close behind" — "just in sight!" came from them in the 
distance as the furious whips played upon the teams. 

With teeth set, muscles strained to almost cracking tension, and in- 

dominitable resolution, we awaited the onset — till we were tired. 

We then sent out a scout of ten men to ascertain where the bloody ras- 
cals really were; and then we "rested on our arms" (Is that the way to 
say it?) and — waited still. 

After some eight hours of this lively kind of life (which, as we had 
counted time, had stretched over as many days,) our scouts returned 
bringing in ten scalps — on their own heads, and that was all. No Indians 
had been seen — no houses rilled or burned — no lives lost and nobody hurt. 

The whole scare originated with an Irishman at old Mr. Barnhill's 
Ranche, a little above Ashland. He had been left alone at the Ranche, 
and a couple of Indians came along and wanted whiskey. He sold to 
them till they raised a war dance, when the Irishman incontinently lied ami 
yelled: "Indians!" "Indians!" 

Meanwhile, while the yell was ringing and echoing over the whole of 
Cass County, the Indians had got over their "drunk" and gone quietly on 
their way. 

THE LEGISLATURE OF '55 AND '56 

as before said, repealed the law giving to the Probate Judge such exten 
sive jurisdiction, and provided for a Board of County Commissioners to 
transact the county business. At the general election of November 4th, 
1850, J. Vallery, Jr., R. Palmer and W. D. Gage were elected as our first 
Board of County Commissioners. They have been succeeded in office as 
follows: 



niSTORV OF PLATTSMODTH, AND CASS COUNTY. 



23 



1857— Wm. Young and R. R. Davis. 

1858— Geo. Mayfleld. 

1859— John Mutz. 

1860— L. G. Todd. 

1801— J. Vallery, Jr. 

1862— Wm. L. Thompson. 

1803— Isaac Pollard. 

1861— M. L. White. 

1805—1). Cole. 

1800— A. Carmichael. 



1807— Jas. O'Neil. 

1808— J. B. Moore. 

1809— Benj. Albin. 

1870— J. Vallery, Jr. 

1871— 1,. H. James. 

1872— T. Clark. 

1873— M. L. White. 

1874— W. B. Arnold. 

1875— B. S. Ramsey. 

1870— E. G. Dovey, (to fill vacancy.) 



our county clerks have been as follows :- 

two years: 



-EACH ELECTION BEING FOR 



1857 -J. N. Wise. 
1859-D. 11. Wheeler. 
1861-'03 '(")- '07— 15. Spurlock. 



1809— Isaac Pollard, 
i87i-'73— D. W. McKinnon. 
1875— C. P. Moore. 



OUR SHERIFFS, ALSO ELECTED FOR TWO YEARS: 



1855— A. C. Towner(appomted.) 
1855— W. R. Ellington. 
1857 Vv. 1). McCord. 
1859— W. 1). McCord. 
1861— U. H. King. 



1803— P. P. Gass. 
1805 -A. B. Taylor. 
l8G7-'09-'7l— J. W. Johnson. 
1873— M. B. Cutler. 
1875— M. B. Cutler. 



OUR TREASURERS, ALSO ELECTED FOR TWO YEARS. 



1855— Bela White. 
185G— Welcher Cardwell. 
1857-'59 -J. D. Simpson. 



1801 -'03- '05- '07— S. Duke. 
1869-'71— W. L. Hobbs. 
1873- '75— J. C. Cummins. 



THE POPULATION, 

by enumeration at different periods shows as follows: 

Sept. 1855—712. 1870-8151. 

1850—1251. 1874—10397. 

18C0— 3369. 1870—10885. 

THE VALUATION OF PROPERTY. 



as assessed for luxation has been as follows: 



1857, $1 ,002,902. 

1850, 1 ,090,074. 

1800 975,450. 

1861 1,013,570. 

1802, 828,019. 

1RG3 3.737,184. 

1864, 1,137,486. 

1865 1,740.829. 

1866, 1,592,678. 

1867 1,729.052. 



1868,. 

1809,. 
1870,. 
1871,. 
1872,. 
1873,. 
1874,. 
1875,. 
1870.. 



$1,896,432. 
2,136,835. 
3,099,856. 
3,704,874. 

4,010,950. 
3.7G7.472. 
4,219,909. 
3,593,017. 
2,891,242. 



24 HISTORY OF PLATTSMOUTH, AND CASS COUNTY. 

The items of this assessment for 1874, the latest itemized list obtain - 
able, is as follows, showing- 313,331 acres at an average value of $7.90 
per acre: 

Land $2,402,600. Wagons and Carriages, (1601), $ 61,068. 

Town Lots 313,872. Money and Credits, 85,655. 

Merchandise, 104,394. Mortgages, 27,023. 

Manufactures, 39,300. Stocks 51, 170. 

Horses, (5962). 309,943. Furniture, 20,957. 

Mules and Asses, (438), C2,873. Libraries, 1,080. 

Neat Cattle, (15,598), 206,580. Other Property, 94,742. 

Sheep, (659), 1,223. Railroads, 343.897. 

Swine, (25,202), 31,438. Telegraph Lines 950. 

The foregoing list does not embrace ordinary house furniture. Libra- 
ries under $100, tools of mechanics and artisans, but a small share of the 
agricultural implements on the farm, or the stores of the produce of the 
farm still on hand; and when it is considered that property is rarely as- 
sessed for taxation at more than sixty or seventy -five per cent, of its real 
value, we may safely add twenty-five per cent, to the foregoing value, 
which would increase it to over five and one-half millions. In the valua- 
tions of the property of Cass County, it will be noticed that there are 

GREAT FLUCTUATIONS IN VALUE. 

Probably much of this is owing to the various modes of assessment by 
the different assessors, ranging all the way from one half up the supposed 
cash value. But this, even wide as the margin is, will not account for 
the showing of 1862,- , 63-'64. From 1862 to 1863 it is more than quadru- 
pled, or increases about four and a half times; and then in the following- 
year, 1864, falls off to less than one third of 1863. One reason for this 
extraordinary increase of 1863, is that the assessors in the spring of 1863 
caught large amounts of property with the crowds coming into the county 
to escape the draft into the army; and then, as a large portion of this 
property remained in the County only long enough to he assessed, and 
then passed on westward, it would in like manner diminish the values 
of the next year. This movement unquestionably produced considerable 
change in values; but that it alone worked such changes is hardly credi- 
ble. The number of acres (313331) assessed in 1874 shows nearly 30,000 
unentered, or if entered, not yet liable to assessment, as the County em- 
braces about 339,200 acres. I find no data of the number of acres under 
cultivation since the U. S. Census of 1870, which gives the numbers as 
55,520. 

So far as can be ascertained 



rnsTouY np plattsmouth, and cass county. z-> 

THE FIRST MARRIAGE 

in the county was that of Elza Martin to Sarah Morris, on November 16, 
L854, byAbram Towner, and recorded by Joseph Lousignont, Register of 
Deeds, the first appointment to that office by Governor Cuming. 

THE SECOND MARRIAGE 

that appears on record was Thomas Hammond to Permelia A. Walker, on 
May 20, 1S55, by L. G. Todd, J. P.; and the third, J. McF. Haygood to 
Man E. Brown. Any. 28, 1855, by W. D. Gage. 

THE FIRST WHITE CHILD 

bom in this county was Nebraska Stevens, son of Wm. Stevens, in Decem- 
ber, 1854 or January 1855. 

The second, Levina Todd, daughter of L. < J. Todd, in FebruaiT <>i" 
1855, now the wife of Thos. J. Thomas. 

[It is stated that Samuel Martin and A. .!. Todd had each a child 
born previous to the above, such may he the case, hut I can obtain no re- 
liable evidence of the dates of their births.) 

From the meager statistics to he found on the subject of 

A.GRK ri.Ti ■;;:•: 
in our county, it seems hardly worth the while to name the subject. Thai 
< ';rss County is one of the best, if not the best agricultural county hi the 
State, is, by all conversant with the subject, admitted; hut the statistics 
to prove this tact are wanting. The early pioneers seem to have taken a 
deeper interest in th;' matter of Associations ami Fail's than the citizens 
of later days. Under an act of incorporation by the Legislature of the 
Territoiy, an association was organized Aug. 30, 1856, with II. C. Wolph, 
President; Wm. II. Davis, Secretary; Timothy Gaskill, Treasurer: and 
a membership of fifty- seven names: each of whom, under the require- 
ments of the Bye-Laws, paid their membership fee of $1. A very inter- 
esting fair was held at, Rock Bluffs in September, 1856; and again in 1S57, 
with a membership of fifty-two. After this, notwithstanding the earnest 
efforts and labors of several individuals, the society languished and died. 
It has been revived in later days, but it is only by persistenl and contin- 
uous effort of a few individuals that it yet lives. The mass of the people 
seem to feel but little interest in the matter. 

Tin: PRODUCTION OF THE COUNT! 

is large, yet at a most unprofitable cost. Land in new counties is plenty 
and cheap, and especially in prairie countries, easily opened: and an im- 
mediate return to the pioneer for his investment in land is not only rlesir- 



2fi HISTORY OF PEATTSMOUTH, AND CASS COUNTY. 

able but often seems necessary: and the great temptation is to bleedthe 
land to extreme weakness if not to absolute death. That is to open as 
large an area as he can scratch over, and take what he can get from the 
land and make no return to it. 

The soil is rich, and even the subsoil full of the elements of vegeta- 
tion; still there is a limit to the best soil, beyond which this kind of 
farming becomes a dead loss. The returns will not pay for seed and labor, 
and farm and money invested in it are sunk- The old Virginia farms 
long since abandoned as worthless; as also to-day the seemingly inex- 
haustible valleys of the Miamas' and Seiota, of Ohio, prove this position 
but too plainly. Nor is it necessary to leave our own County for this 
proof, as of the farms here for only twenty years in cultivation under this 
system, but few, if any, produce now more than forty to sixty per cent, of 
their first crops. But this is no time or place for an agricultural essay. 
Permit me to give you farmers of < 'ass County a few figures to ponder 
upon and we will leave the subject. 

First, however, I must make an assertion which, perhaps, y<»u will say 
is not proof. I admit assertion is not proof, but then I have on record 
the figures, dates and witnesses to make it: so, if you doubt it; and this 
assertion is that any average land in Cass County, farmed as ir should he, 
will produce from 80 to 100 bushels of corn or 25 to 35 bushels of wheat 
per acre. Let us take 40 acres of our average land to experiment upon. 
First with average poor farming and its results, and then the same num- 
ber of acres of good farming; noting, however, that general estimates 
will not give accurate results for particular tracts of land, as an entire 
level or table land will wear longer, with less deterioration, than the roil- 
ing, and the steeper the swells the more rapidly is the soil transferred by 
washing and cultivation to the low lands; and again, with hill aiid valley 
or bottom included in the same farm, the bottom will perhaps hold its 
own at the expense of the hill side. 

FORTY ACKES OF AVERAGE Pool! FARMING. 

Plowing (cut and cover) 2J4 neres per day. 16 days @ $2.50 8 Ki.00 

Laying off and planting, io>; acres per day, 317-21 days (3 $2.50 9.52 

Seed. 11 bushels, @ 50 cents, 500 

Cultivating twice, c, acres per day, \3% days, •■> $2.50 33.33 

Harvesting, team and two men, 70 bushels per day, 22C-7 days,<3 $3.75 per day, 85.72 

Use of land, $3 per acre, continually decreasing in value till worthless 120.00 

Average decrease in value, 25 cts per acre 1 "-"° 

Total cost $304.07 

Receipts. 40 bushels per acres or 1600 bushels, much of it nubbins and chatty, ar 25c:s,. . . 100.00 

Profit on the 40 acres $95.93 

This profit must grow less and less each year, till it turns to loss, as many fields have al- 
ready fallen to 30, 25 and 20 bushels per acre. 



HISTOKY OF cXATTSMOUTH, AND CASS COUNTY. Z I 

Now LET US LOOK AT THE FORTY ACRES OK GOOD FARMING: 

2i) loads of manure every other year, or 10 loads per acre annually, ton loads, (§ 40c, $160.00 

Plowing Pj acres per day. 10 inches deep, 22 6-7 days. @ $2.50, 57.14 

Laying off and planting, as before n.52 

Seed 5.50 

Cultivating four times, .".acres per day. 32 days, @ 2.50 80.00 

Hand hoeing 30.00 

Harvesting, team and two men, 80 bushels per day. 40 days. (§ §3.75. 80 bus. per acre 150.00 

Use of ground, although yearly increasing in value 120.00 

Total cost $612.16 

('reiiii by 80 bushels p< r acre, 32<>o bushels, worth 30 cents per bushel $960.00 

Profit, yearly increasing. $347.84 

EDUCATION. 

'i'!i" record of our schools arc probably as deficient and mutilated as 
the records or' other departments of our history, and what remain have 
been carried away from the ' lounty Seat, and are thus, without time and 
labor which could not be spared, inaccessible for the purposes of this 
sketch. Application for information by letter to the present County Su- 
perintendent of schools, procured a — promise, nothing more. But were 
these records accessible find entire, they would not ba likely to serve to 
much purpose here. 

The rise and progress of school systems, from pioneer efforts in 
widely scattered settlements, composed of residents also widely scattered 
and usually of limited means, present much the same features throughout 
the whole country. The parent is anxious that his children should lie ed- 
ucated, but they must be fed and clothe:!: hence the school must wait for 
a time. A record would be interesting and valuable, as it might perpetuate 
the memory of those who have more earnestly and vigorously labored and 
developed our present system. The means and progress are little other 
than a repetition of what has occurred in other places again and again. 

Under the circumstances 1 do not see that 1 can do better than to 
reproduce a tabulated report, made by Prof. LT. W- Wise, late Superin- 
tendent of our Public Schools for the County, and kindly furnished tome 
for this use. The report is as yet unpublished, having been prepared for 
the State Superintendent at the close of the year 187."). 

Figures are generally dry reading but the reader who has but a 
slight interest in education will will note much of hope and promise as 
well as much of actual possession in this report. It embraces a compara- 
tive showing of progress for four years. It is as follows: . 



28 T1TSTORY OF PLATTSMOUTH, AND CASS COUNTY. 



Number of School Districts, 

" •■ School Houses 

" School Children, 

" Children attending school, 
Per cent, of children attending school,. . 

Number of Teachers employed 

Aggregate number of days taught by all, 
Number of visits of Superintendent 

'• " " of District Officers 

District Tax to pay Teachers, 

'• '• to erect School Houses, .... 

" for other purposes, 

Money paid for apparatu;, &ts., 

Paid Male Teachers, 

['aid Female Teachers, 



1872. 


1S7:;. 


1S74. 


1875, 


7.-, 


79 


7:i 


SI 


4!) 


(50 


70 


S4 


3315 


3329 


wcr, 


:;74f> 


2056 


2380 


■iw 


2952 


G2 


71 


70 


7s 


114 


133 


136 


12:: 


7/W7 


9006 


9421 


10319 


42 


117 


96 


128 


14!) 


227 


237 


240 


S 394.51 


s 1221.20 


$2488.94 


$ 1957.56 


47:r..L' _ . 


278 ID. io 


7124.2.-. 


1 lsi; i.ji 


103.90 


1110.25 


2134.27 


8246.12 


L'!!.L'". 


141.02 


188.00 


2160.9.) 


6553.18 


9519.00 


8640.00 


1 0433.96 


1533.93 


5303.27 


6573.72 


9307.06 



[Since writing the above 1 have received the following items from <;. B. Crippen, County 
Superintendent : 

No. of School Houses in Cass County. June. 1876 : Stone, 2 : Brick, Hi ; Frame. 67 : total. 79. 
No. of School Districts in Cass County. June. 1876, 83. 
No. of School Children. 1-135. 
No. of Children attending school, 3342. 

I'llK FIRST SERMON 

preached in the County was in October, 1854, at the house of TIios. I'.. 
Ashley by Abrani Towner. 

HORSE THIEVES AND LYNCH LAW. 

I think no well informed an 1 dispassionate person will dispute the 
proposition thai "a community will prospar in all their surroundings only 
as it choc's an {faithfully execute? go » 1 an 1 wholeso o \ laws." 

Yet it is well known that general laws cannot bs made to lit with 
exact justice to special cases; as also, thai through the agency of money 
and subtle lawyers a largo proportion of oar vilest criminals escape the 
just penalties of their villainous deeds, while many an innocent person is 
mad;' to suffer cruel and grievous wrong, or is perhaps brought to a horri 
ble and disgraceful djath. This uncertainty in the administration of 
criminal law has in luc ■ 1 m my int slligent, an i otherwise law abiding cit- 
izens to enter upon acts and d sels from which they shrink with aversion 
and horror; and which, under other circumstances, they would utterly 
refuse. 

The peculiar cirenmstan • >> attending the stealing of horses, and the 
facilities fortius escape of the thief on the borders of new settlements, 
has indicated the class of horse thieves as one demanding sure and 
speedy extinction. From hasty action under this feeling probably many 
innocent man havo su Fered; while a much larger number, taken red hand- 
ed in the act, have speedily been put beyond the reach of further offense. 



ITISTOKV OP PLATTSMOUTH, AND CASS COUNTY. 29 

During several years preceding 1864 a number of citizens of Cass 
County suffered much loss and hardship from this class of villains. 
About the first of June of that year, 18(54, (some say 1863) two horses 
were taken from Capt. Isaac Wiles and one from John Snyder, of this 
county. Pursuit was immediately made. A quarrel between the thieves 
about the division of the horses induced one of the three to betray the 
other two. The informal" was secured, and on the, information given the 
two were followed and found secreted in a loft at "-Mullen's Ranehe," on 
the divide south of South Bend. They were secured and the party re- 
turned with them to Eight Mile Grove. In the trial of the men which 
followed before the self constituted court, there was not, nor could be any 
denial of guilt. They were horse thieves taken in the very act. No pos- 
sible mistake in their identity, design or act. A plea was offered for the 
one who betrayed the other two. But it was considered that, as no re- 
pentance or better feeling had induced this action, but only revenue and 
malice toward his fellow criminals; it gave no shadow of an excuse for 
sparing him, perhaps to repeat the offence before another day; and with- 
out a dissenting voice sentence was passed and followed by immediate 
execution. And death then and there closed the career of three misera- 
ble men. 

PRECINi TS. 

Previous to 1874, the precincts of Cass County were arranged to ac- 
commodate the settlements, but in 1874 the County Commissioners re- 
arranged them, conforming their boundaries to those of the Congressional 
Townships of the County, except the fractional townships in range 1 1, 
which were included in the precincts of range 13, as per map. 

PLATTSMOUTH, 

the County Seat of Cass County, will be found described in the "History 
of the City of Plattsmouth." 

ROCK BLUFFS, 

on the Missouri River, in Rock Bluffs precinct, was settled and laid out 
about the same time as Plattsmouth, and was for a time a somewhat for- 
midable rival to Plattsmouth, but it is now in a decline. With a popula- 
tion of 175 it has two trading houses, mill, smith shop, and Post 
Office. Joseph Shera, P. M. 

KANOSHA AND LIBERTY, 

on the Missouri, below Rock Bluffs, were towns, in early days, of consid- 
erable promise. Kanosha with some thirty houses, and Liberty with fif- 
teen or twenty. They are now deserted. 



30 HISTORY OF PLATTSMOUTH, AND CASS COUNTY. 

CLEVELAND, 

still lower on the river, a town which was to be but never was. 

UNION, OR FOLDENS MILLS, 

hardly a village, but rather a compact settlement gathered about the 
Mills, on the lower Weeping Water, in Liberty precinct. Has a popula- 
tion of about sixty, with a Post Office established. 

FACTORYVILLE, 

also on the Weeping Water, a short distance above Union Mills; has a 
population of some twenty-live. 

WEEPING WATER, 

at the Weeping Water Falls, in Weeping Water precinct, was settled in 
1857. A mill and a few houses were built, after which, for several years, 
it had a struggle for existence, till 1869-'70 it was roused up and com- 
menced a new life. It has now a population of some four hundred, six 
trading houses, a hotel and livery stable, two well built churches, a high 
school building, and three mills in the vicinity, and a post office. 

LOUISVILLE, 

at the month of Mill or Thompson's Creek, in Louisville precinct, was 
laid out in 1856, and one log cabin built, ami thus slept until 1870, when, 
under control of ( 'apt. J. T. A. Hoover and brother and the 15. & M. R. R. 
Co., it was re-surveyed and commenced life anew. It has now a popula- 
tion of some two hundred, four trading houses, a hotel, station house, on 
the B. & M. R. R., a "rain warehouse, lumber yard, and three smith 
shops. J. T. A. Hoover. Postmaster. 

SOUTH BEND, ■ 

in South Rem! precinct, also of early date^ slept till the Railroad revived 
it. It has now a grain warehouse, and trading house, and a population 
of twenty-live or thirty. 

EIGHT MILE GROVE, 

a close settlement: on the corners of the four precincts of Plattsinouth, 
Rock Bluffs, Eight Mile Grove, and Mt. Pleasant, has a population of 
about one hundred, two churches, a school house ami a Post Office, C. H. 
King, Postmaster. • 

GLENDALE, 

a traveling Post. Office in Eight Mile Grove precinct. After four remov- 
als expired in 1875. 



HISTORY OF PLATTSMODTH, AND CASS COUNTY. .'II 

GREENWOOD, 

on the B. & M. R. R.,in Salt Creek precinct,has a. population of about fifty, 
three trading houses, two churches, a grain warehouse, a hotel, two smith 
shops, school house ami Post Office; H. H. Alden, Postmaster. 

POST OFFICES. 

There are twenty-four post offices in Cass ( Ymnty, sixteen in addi- 
tion to the towns named, viz.: 

Concord and Cedar Creek, in Eight Mile Grove precinct on the 15. & 
M. R. R. 

Avoca, in Avoca precinct: Amos Teft, Postmaster. 

Belmont. 

Bushberry, on sec. .'!:!. T. 11, R. 10, George M. Cudie, Postmaster. 

' !enter Valley. 

Eagle, on sec S. T. 10, R. 9; A. S. CoOley, Postmaster. 

Elmwood, on sec. :!'.'>, T. 11. II. L0; Turner Zink, Postmaster. 

Luella, in Elmwood precinct. 

Maineland, on sec. 9, T. 1!. R. !0; A. V. Durell, Postmaster. 

Mt. Pleasant, in Liberty precinct; Lynch, Postmaster. 

Nehawka, on sec. L9, T. L0, R. 13; L. G Pollard. Postmaster. 

Sunlight, on see. 10, T. 10, R. 9; Edward Post, Postmaster. 

Three Groves, in Rock Bluffs precinct. 

Union, on sec. 29, '1'. UK K. II ; Geo. Cross, Postmaster. 

Victoria, in Weeping Water Precinct. 



CEXTENNIAL SKETCH 



OF THE HISTOIM 01 



THE CITY OF PLATTSMOUTH 



As Plattsmouth was the starting point from which a large portion of 
the early settlements and organic proceedings of the county originated 
and radiated, a history of the County necessarily covers much of the 
history of the city. The first settler, Samuel Martin, with his two log 
houses commenced the settlement of both count}- and city, and the details 
of Martin's precinct are identical with those of the subsequent Platts- 
mouth City. 

CLUB LAW 

ruled supreme from June, 1S54, to September, 1855, when it weakened 

some from the presence of the two Justices of the Peace, Allen Watson 
and L. G. Todd, but still exerted a controlling [tower for a year or so 
later. 

The first movement on record looking toward the "City of Platts 
mouth,'" was the organization of the "Plattsmouth Town Compan\ r ," Oct. 
26, 1854. The first members of this company were Samuel Martin, Jas. 
O'Neil, J. L. Sharp, C. and L. Nuckolls, and Manly Green. Other mem- 
bers subsequently joined them. In November, 185-4, this company pro- 
ceeded to lay out and plat the City of Plattsmouth. O. N. Tyson was 
the surveyor of the company, and surveyed and platted the future city 
In March, following, the company obtained from the first legislature an 
act of incorporation of the City of Plattsmouth. This was the official 
birth of the city on March 16, 1855. The town site was entered January 
22, 1859. 



HISTORY OF PLATTSMOUTH, AND CASS COUNTY. 66 

Iii the order for a county election issued by Judge Towner for April 
10, 1S55, he changed the name of the precinct from "Martin's" to Platts- 
mouth, so that Martin's name now remains only as a name in history. 
Meantime he had finished his work in the settlement and was laid away 
with so few attending spectators, that when active search and inquiries 
were instituted a few years since, by his relatives, for his remains, they 
failed to find any clue to them. James O'Neil, Esq., stales that on a bit- 
ter cold winter day he assisted to make a coffin and bury the body on the 
hill west of the present High School building, on Hays addition to the 
City of Plattsmouth. The grave is now surrounded by several old time 
graves. 

At the general election on November 6th, 1855, Allen Watson and 
Moses R. Jackson wvv^ elected Justices for Plattsmouth precinct, and 
Win. G-uUion and Martin Klopinger, Constables. Civil law still, however, 
playing but a second part in die government of the precinct. 

As before said, the two log houses built by, or for, Samuel Martin, in 
1853, wi'vc the first buildings in the city. They were followed, so far as 
I can learn, by the third, a log house, built bp T. G. Palmer, on the lot 
now occupied by Dr. Livingston; the fourth, also of logs, by W. Mickel- 
wait, on the corner of Main and Sixth streets, on the lot now occupied by 
White's grocery; and the fifth, of logs, also, by Wm. Garrison, on the 
present site of Major Wheeler's house. 

THE FIRST FRAME BUILDING 

erected was on the south side of Wain street just above where the Platte 
Valley House now stands, probably on the lot now occupied by Waterman 
& Son's lumberyard office. It was built for and used as the 

FIRST HOTEL IX PLATTSMOUTH. 

It. was called the "Farmers' Hotel." The foregoing log houses and tin's 
hotel were built during the fall of 1854 and spring of 1855. 

Three good frame houses were built in 1850 by W. Mickelwait, viz.: 
the Nebraska House or City Hotel, (this was built for the Plattsmouth 
Town Company); the house he occupies now; and the one across the 
street, north of it, for T. G. Palmer. In the same summer, 1856, Messrs. 
Slaughter and Worley built the old New York Store. The first brick was 
probabl}' built by Judge A. L. Sprague in 1858 and '59, now used as the 
Surveyor General's Office; and the second about the same time or a little 
later by J. Krouth, now owned by E. G Dovey as a store: and the third 
in !859-'60 by W. B. Warbritten — on the present site of Fitzgerald's block 
— used by J. Harper as a store, and later as a public school house. 



34 HISTORY OF PLATTSMOUTH AND, (ASS COUNTY. 

In 18G3 two more bricks were erected, viz.: by Win, Herolcl, south of 
the bridge on Second street; and Tootle & Hanna's store, lately occupied 
by E. T. Duke <fc Co. as a Hardware store, as also by the First National 
Bank of Plattsmouth. In 1864 Win. Herold added the lifth, on the site 
of the old Barracks. Tootle & Hanna's store, the Masonic ' Block, in 
1865, and John Fitzgerald's block on the corner of Main and Sixth street 
are structures of which no city need be ashamed. 

The first hotel has already been located. The second was built by 
Wm. Hyatt in 1856 and named the "Farmer's Home." It is now used by 
Mr. Gramberg as an office for his lumber yard. The third hotel was the 
"Platte Valley" by Wm. McCarty, built in the spring and summer of 1857. 

OUE TRADERS AXI) Ml LICHANTS 

have mostly been of a transitory class, soon passing on, and have seldom 
done much for Plattsmouth. They have been and still arc slaves to the 
pernicious credit system which prevails to a great extent the world over; 
and has probably been the cause of as much, if not more pecuniary loss 
to the country than any other single cause. Credit is sometimes, perhaps, 
an advantage to honest men. But the inherent evils of the system, leading 
to careless and reckless contracting of wholly unnecessary debts, and the 
utter ruin often following are fearful. 

Again, the merchant who sells on credit must exact enough, over and 
above the value of the article sold, even to the cash dealer and those who 
do pay, to balance the loss on those who do not pay, or else goto the Avail, 
Hence the evil reaches all classes, and all sutler by it. 

Let any one curious on this subject examine our court records for the 
three or four years past and Ik 1 will there find a history of wide spread 
ruin and distress among our honest meaning but short-sighted, hard 
working farmers; as also of too many of our other citizens stripped either 
voluntarily in their anxiety to pay their debts; or by the Sheriff of every 
thing not exempt by law: and very many, tortured by the constantly ac- 
cumulating load of debt, mortgaging their teams, tools and implements, 
farms and homesteads, and that, but too generally, only to delay the hour 
of being thrown out upon the world homeless and destitute. 

In 1857 I was sued by a Plattsmouth merchant on a credit of four 
weeks' standing. It was paid the next day with costs ami that was 

TIIK LAST CREDIT 

I have received in Nebraska or elsewhere. I do not speak of this as a 
boast, fori have been as poor and needy as any working man in ('ass 
County. My farm team for eighteen months was one small horse, till he 



HISTORY OF PLATTSMOUTH, AND CASS COUNTY. 35 

died from a snake bite. Then, by exchange of work with neighbors, I 
struggled along till 1 yoked a two year old steer with a three year old, 
both calves raised from the same cow. I have suffered privations ex- 
ceeded by few, if any, but I had sworn that I would never contract a debt 
again; even to the amount of one cent in any ease whatever, and my oath 
is as yet unbroken. Could the mass of our citizens have made and ad- 
hered to the same resolve; or the merchant utterly refused any credit, 
sharp and severe temporary distress might have ensued, but the ruinous 
results of to-day, brought to a crisis by the scourge of grasshoppers, hail, 
tv<\, would have been avoided. This may not be considered a creditable 
portion of our history, and probably many would advise its suppression. 
1 view it differently. W it shows an evil it is not peculiar to our city or 
county, but it is broad spread as the country, and deeply rooted as time 
and habit can make it. 

Our laws of homestead and exemption reserve all the neeessary 
means of profitably pursuing their various avocations to our citizens and 
a liome which, without their own consent cannot be wrested from them. 
Yet how many of our citizens have within the past year seen the poor 
debtor searching from house to house and from office to office, to procure 
the loan of small sums of money with which to pay off his debts(unpaid 
by reason of evils beyond the control of man) and mortgaging his teams, 
his homestead and all; thus yielding, and often losing, all the rights se- 
cured to him and his family by law; because he was too honest to avail 
himself of them, and thus defraud his creditors; yet too simple to avoid 
the curse of debt which has thus worked his ruin. Deeply as we may 
deplore the blindness which caused the debt, we cannot but glory in the 
honesty that pays it at such a cost. 

We have counted up about thirty linns that have opened and done a 
trading business in Plattsmout ii, besides a host of smaller dealers, gro- 
ceries, saloons, &c. 

Samuel Martin headed the list, who was probably alone till he died, 
December 15th, 1854. Slaughter & Worley succeeded him in the same 
old Ban*acks, till they had built and finished the old "New York Store'' 
in the fall of 1856, when they moved into it. 

During the summer of 1856 Garrison, Griffith & Co., erected the store 
now occupied by Dr. W. E. Donelan as a Drug store, and put in goods in 
the same fall or early winter. This house has been re-covered and repair- 
ed, but unlike the long lived jack-knife of several new blades and handles, 
contains much of the original material. The firm of Garrison, Griffith 
& Co.. was subsequently changed to Nuckolls. Garrison & Co., and then 



36 HISTORY OF PLATTSMODTH AND, I ASS I ODNTY. 

to Garrison & Jones; and I am strongly tempted to add that a more com 
plete swindling shop never had place in the city. 

Joseph Harper was probably the next in succession. He bought out 
Mr. Mickelwait's house on the corner of Main and Sixth streets, added 
a room to it, into which he put goods for sale. 

These men and most of their successors have passed on and disap- 
peared. The credit system compells this movement. However honest 
and upright the men hant may be, if he sells on credit, a collection day 
must come, and the distress attending collections destroys his popularity 
and business, so that the general course is to sell for a few months, or 
possibly years; then (dose up, put his accounts in an officer's hands and 
vanish. 

POST OFFICE. 

The first Postmaster in Plattsmouth was Wheatlcv Mickelwait, Esq., 
and it is said by some of the irreverent that the post office was in the 
said YVheatly Mickelwait's hat. I think this statement liable to grave 
doubts, as this said hat, as I recollect it, was so largely ventilated that it 
was subject at any time or place to a wholesale ami broadcast delivery. 
But lie was surely appointed Postmaster in the Fall of 1855. But after 
a while, perhaps from finding the P. O. building not fully reliable, trans- 
ferred it to Slaughter & Worley's store, with Worley as deputy. 

W. Mickelwait was succeeded by O. F. Johnson, who kept the office 
in the old Barracks. Mr. Johnson was succeeded by our present P. M., 
who first kept the office in Dr. G. II. Black's late office, next door below 
Dovey's store. lie then moved up to the Court House, and from there to 
Fitzgerald's block, and thence to its present location. Tins, I think, is 
the only one of our public offices in the city where all the successive offi- 
cers have remained and still remain today residents of the city. 

THE FIRST MILL. 

A saw mill was erected by C. Heisel early in 1856; an attachment 
was added by which some Hour was made in the fall of the same year. It 
was subsequently moved, rebuilt, and by August, 1857, was doing a good 
business as a Saw and Flouring Mill. Sarin's Flouring Mill was built 
in the summer of 1862. 

THE FERRY. 

One of the seventy acts of incorporation of our first Legislature was 
that of "A Ferry across the Missouri at Plattsmouth. 1 ' The parties in- 
cluded in this act were W. Mickelwait, J. O'Neil, J. L. Sharp, J. G. Pal- 
mer and L. Nuckolls, and their associates. This charter was dated 



HISTORY OF PUATTSMOUTH; AND CASS COUNTY. 37 

March 1st, 1855. Several other parties were more or less interested in 
this ferry, but for a large part of the time W. Mickelwait seems to have 
been a kind of '-head center' 1 in it. A flat boat was run up to August, 
1857, when the "Emma" was put on; followed by the "Survivor" in 1858, 
the "Paul Wilcox" in the fall of 185!), and later by the present ''Mary 
McGee. : ' The several disasters befalling these boats I have not suffi- 
ciently mastered to attempt to describe them. 

PHYSICIANS. 

Iii 1856 Di's. E. A. and YV. E. Donelan opened :in office in Plaits 
mouth for the practice of medicine. After some years E. A. Donelan left, 
but W. E. Donelan still remains at his post, the only instance of a profes- 
sional man who from so early a day upon "roll call" can answer "present." 
Dr. Livingston came in the fall of 1859; Dr. G. H. Black in the fall of 
1861; Dr. Schilrlkneet in 1862; and Dr. John Black in the spring of 1863. 
These constitute our present medical faculty. 

ATTORNEYS. 

] can count up but twenty who have displayed their shingles lure as 
"Attorneys at Law." I judge it cannot be a good place for the profession 
or else that the good lawyers did not come here. D. H. Wheeler can date 
bank farther than any other member of the Bar who has made a contin- 
uous residence here; but we can hardly call him a good lawyer, inasmuch 
as tlic larger part of his time is and has been devoted to other business. 
As it is more pleasant to talk about good places and good men, than the 
reverse, we will only add to the subject — good bye. 

There is no interest connected with human life of equal importance 
or moment to thai of 

EDUCATION, 

both religious and secular; and yet but few are generally met by and 
treated with as much indifference by the mass of the people. 

Educational movements and progress are almost universally the re- 
sult of individual persistent effort, gradually leavening the mass and in a 
manner forcing co-operation. This is a strange characteristic of human- 
ity, the why and wherefore of which is hard to determine. But the cor- 
rectness of the statement may by some be doubted or disbelieved. We 
hear much on every side of education, and there seems to be much gen- 
eral anxiety on the subject. Advance the proposition that there is no 
more important subject, ami you can get up no argument; every one 
agrees with you. Where then is your proof of this indifference? Let us 



38 HISTORY OF PLATTSMOUTI1 .\XI\ (ASS nil'XTV. 

apply the test of works and deeds to the question and note the result. 
The church is open weekly, at the least, and often daily, U>r religious in- 
struction; what proportion of the people ever enter the doors for the 
unmixed purpose of instruction or even of worship? I leave the answer 
of this question to you. Again, the school house door is ever open for 
our children, and what proportion of them are voluntarily ever found 
there? Under the united efforts of school officers and teachers, urging 
((instantly the necessity and importance of attendance, as also absolute 
force by law in many cases, as also many other varied means to induce 
al tendance, and our school statistics show an average attendance of but 
little over one half of our children. What would it be if left to volun- 
tary action alone? 

Now, let the discovery of a new gold field, an election where party 
spirit runs high, a circus exhibition, or even a saloon light, be announced, 
and have yon to talk, urge, reason and demonstrate that time and money 
expended in these directions will be repaid with ample interest? Oh no! 
Before yon can frame a thought into words, the man is off like a shot for 
the attractive object; all consideration of cost, returns, &c, utterly ig- 
nored. Now yet again approach this same people with the announce- 
ment of the deep and never dying interest of the soul. The intense en- 
joyment; the ever enduring gratification and benefit, even to the cent per 
cent, money profits of secular education; and where now is the excite- 
ment and enthusiasm? Is it any longer a question of doubt? I think 
not. The result, ha.wwr mortifying, can not be questioned. 

The early history of educational efforts in Plattsmouth are equally 
obscure with those of the County, and a show of what we have now in 
possession is about all 1 can reach. I have been kindly assisted by Dr. 
Livingston, of the City Council, and Thos. Pollock, Clerk of the School 
Board, to the following synopsis of the present state of our City schools, 
as also to the "rules and regulations'* adopted by the Council for their 
government. 

Three Ward school houses each cost $1,000 

One High School building, cost, .$'25,000 

Furnace, furniture, apparatus, &c, cost about $5,000 

Number of school children 081 

Number enrolled 555 

Average attendance, 433 

Number of teachers employed, 8 

All the grades are now taught in the High School building, except the 
First and Second years of Primaries, winch are taught in the Fourth Ward 
school house. 



HISTORY OF PT.ATTSMOUTH, AND CASS COUNrY. i\) 
FOURTH WARD SCIIOOfe. 

Number enrolled TO 

Average attendance no 

The grades taught in the High School building are, First and Second 
Primaries of all Wards excepting the Fourth; the Third Primary, the First 
and Second intermediate, and the High School and Grammar Grades. 

FIRST PRIMARY, 

Number enrolled 87 

A verage attendance 64 

SECOND PRIMARY. 

Numher enrolled 50 

Average attendance 42 

THIRD PRIMARY. 

Number enrolled 7!) 

A verage ; ttendance . 07 



nee 


1 


FIRST 


ixti: 


[..MEDIATE. 


lice 



Number enrolled 59 

Average attendance, 

SECOND INTERMEDIA TE. 

Number enrolled, 85 

A verage attendance ... 70 

HIGH SCHOOL AND GRAMMAR GRADES. 

Numher enrolled, 105 

Average attendance 75 

Total number of pupils in High School building, 405 

Average attendance, 373 

Teachers in High School building, 7 

" in Fourth Ward school, 1 

The High School building is seated throughout with the best patent 
seats. The school is tally equipped with Maps, Charts, and Apparatus, 
including Ritchie's best set of philosophical apparatus, also Queen's besl 
Astronomical Telescope and Microscope, two twenty inch Globes, Orrery, 
Tellurium. Ac; and a full supply of apparatus for Gymnastic exercise.-,. 

In the High School Grade the following studies are pursued, viz. : 
Algebra, English Composition and Literature. Physiology, German, 
French, Latin and Greek, Geometry, Geology, Trigonometry. Chemistry, 
Potany. General and Ancient History, Mental and Moral Science, Astron- 
omy, Zoology. Science of Government, American Literature, and Roman 
Antiquities. 



4(1 HISTORY OF PLATTSMOUTH AND, (ASS COUNTY. 

The person who has« resided in the vicinity of Public schools and 
noc heard frequent complaints and talk of abusive and wrongful ads of 
teachers, as also of remissness or neglect of school boards, and of worth- 
lessness of schools, has lived where I have not. 

One of the deepest feelings inherent in our nature is that for the en- 
tire control of our own children; and as the public school system must 
necessarily transfer that control and authority for a portion of the time 
to other parties, and these parties teachers, usually sti angers, who, we 
aic sure, cannot understand am! appreciate the peculiar disposition and 
character of our children, and arc therefore unlit to have the control of 
them; and a reproof or punishment, which administered by ourselves, 
perhaps, with double violence and yet is forgotten in a few moments, if 
given by the teacher becomes a deep sealed and lasting injury. Even 
the most reasonable and best balanced mind finds a spirit of jealousy and 
antagonism developed in himself in spite of all efforts to resist it: and 
although reason and judgment may compel him to submit to this divided 
control, it may beat the expense of much private suffering. The minds 
of less reasoning and more excitable parents, are of course proportionally 
more deeply moved, and their action less restrained. 

The age is progressive, and the half dozen studies which, when mas- 
tered, even forty years since, completed and perfected the common school 
education, have now swelled to some two dozen in our city schools: and, 
the parents educated under the old system "pish" and "pshaw" at the 
"flummery," "fanfarade," and nonsense. They were educated under the 
"good old system." It was "good enough for them," and ••made them 
what then are," and "what is good enough for the parentis good, enough 
for the child." 1 confess to a kind of surface emotion of sympathy with 
this feeling, 

Some twenty years of my earlier life was devoted to the charge of 
schools, teachers, and general educational interests; and although in the 
later portion of this life some innovations were made upon the good old 
course of Spelling, Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, Grammar and Geogra- 
phy, (and Latin and Greek were allowable in parties preparing for Col 
lege), they conflicted too much with the old standard to be cordially wel- 
comed. I had a deep personal interest in the new studies, but they seem- 
ed out of place in the school room. It is hard to make new impressions 
on old fossils. 

To-day under the action of such consideration and reason as I may 
be able to summon, I would remit no effort for a thorough basis on the 
elementary studies, nor would I place any limit to any positively demon- 



HISTORY OF PLATTSMOUTH, AND CASS COUNTY. 41 

strated knowledge; I would as soon deny the use and developement of 
physical as mental powers. And yet the largely inereased and increas- 
ing number of studies now before the world are far too extensive to be 
crowded into the usually alloted school age; hut tfhe pupil well grounded 
in elementary branches is prepared to continue his studies during at least 
the remainder of his life. 

So far as 1 may be able to judge of the 

COURSE OF STUDY 

adopted by the City Council for our city schools, in 1S7:>, and now pur- 
sued; it could not well be improved. It embraces many studies unknown 
to our old schools, yet, as adapted to the circumstances and situation of 
the present of equal importance to any of them. No pupil is obliged to 
undertake or finish them all, but he must be sufficiently versed in what 
he does undertake, to enable him to go on with the course and extend it 
according to his ability in afterlife. 

UNDER THE CHARTER OF MARCH 16, IS.")."). 

a city government was organized by an election on December 29th, 18")(>, 
at which Wheatly Mickelvyait was elected Mayor, and Enos Williams. W. 
M. Slaughter and Jacob Vallery, Aldermen. This City Council met and 
proceeded to business .January 'I'), 1857. 

August 5th, 1857, P. L. Wise. J. N. Wise, and W. W. Thomas were 
appointed by the Council a committee to "prepare rules for the city offi- 
ces." We will not suppose that the city officers were a particularly un- 
governable set, or unable to draft their own rules. Possibly the heavy 
burdens resting on their shoulders in those days made it necessary to call 
in outside help. 

On December 7th. 1S.">7, the Council voted each member an annual 
[lay of $100. There were six sessions of the Council held during the 
year, as shown by the journal, and this paid only the small sum of $16'|- 
per session. But then this was eked out by special appropriations for 
extra committee services. 

A SECOXD ELECTION 

on .January 4th, 1858, placed E. A. Donelan in the Mayor's chair, and J. 
I). Simpson. T. M. Marquctt and .1. Harper in the Aldermen's seats. J. 
II. Brown was Recorder; B. Spurlock, Treasurer; C. B. Cooper. Marshal; 
F. Clements, Assessor; and C. M. Lewis, City Engineer. 

On September 16th, 1858, a petition signed by W. M. Slaughter and 
fourteen others, was presented to the Council, asking that the "Old Bar- 



42 HISTORY OF PLATTSMOUTH AND, CASS COUNTY. 

racks' 1 be removed. It was referred to the Committee on Cit^v Improve 
ments, composed of J. D. Simpson aim J. Harper. The record shows no 
report from the eommittee as yet. 

On September 18th, »1858, J. Harper resigned his position as Alder- 
man and J. W. Marshall was appointed in his place. 

At the third annual election, January 7th, 1859, E. A. Donelan was 
re-elected Mayor; J. D. Simpson, J. W. Marshall, F. Clements, David 
Sampson. W. PI Donelan, and J. ('. Cummins were elected Aldermen; the 
amended City Charter allowing live Alderman instead of three, but by 
mistake the City understood that the number was increased to six and 
elected six. D. H. Wheeler was elected Recorder. 

On April 6th the error in electing six instead of five Aldermen was 
discovered, and a new election called; the result of which was YV . 15. 
Warbritton, John Patterson, F. Clements, David Sampson and T. M. Mar- 
(piett as Aldermen. 

In May of 1860 the Council, in session, burned $8,650 in scrip, pre 
viously issued by the city to supply the want of change. 

At the fifth annual election in January, 1861, YV. I». Warbritton was 
again returned as Mayor, for the second time; Enos Williams, J. Patter- 
son, W. Pottinger, Lloyd Lucas and J. Vallery, Aldermen ; W. T. Eth- 
ridge, Recorder; A. II. Townsend, City Attorney; and W E. Donelan, 
Treasurer. 

After holding eleven sessions and entering into several important 
contracts, besides doing much general business; it was proved that at the 
election, John Campbell, fearful that the election was not going off just 
right, took the quiet hour of dinner to re-arrange the votes in the ballol 
box. As this way of "fixing" things was not considered legal, the elec- 
tion was declared null and void, and a second election called. In which 
in April, 1861, W. E. Donelan was elected Mayor: E. Williams, W. P. Da- 
vis, W. Pottinger, J. X. Wise and J. II. Buttery, Aldermen; J. II. Brown, 
Treasurer; A. B. Barr, Marshal; C. Schlater, Assessor. 

April 2(>, 1861, an Ordinance was passed for paving the sidewalks of 
Main street from Second to Sixth street. 

In April, 1862, an ordinance was passed confirming the contract for 
the Plattsmouth Cemetery, and S. S. Billings, J. N. Wise, M. L. White, E. 
F. Donelan, and T. K. Hanna were appointed as a Board of Trustees. 

April Kith 1862, the retiring Council voted to pay each Councilman 
.$25 for the past year's service. This example seems not to have produced 
its proper effect upon our national politicians. If it had, much paper 
and ink might have been spared on the "salary grab." 



HISTORY OF PLATTSMODTH, AND CASS COUNTY. 43 

The old Council Records recall many interesting movements and inci- 
dents of the past, which, but for such a reminder, would soon pass utterly 
from recollection; but as other subjects press forward for notice I must 
with even briefer extracts close this part of our city record. 

The succeeding Mayors, after Dr. W. E. Donelan, were, in order, 
Thos. K. Hanna, in lSV>-2; W. H. Spratlin, in 1863, till September, when he 
left the city, and M. L. White was elected for Ids unexpired term, as also 
for 1864; C. L. Cooper for 1865 and 1866. 

In March, 1866, a "Board of Health 1 '' was created for the city, in 
view of the threatened approach of the Cholera, The entire medical 
force of the City was appointed on this "Board,'* viz., Drs. Livingston, G. 
II. and John Black, and Donelan. A movement of doubtful benefit, if 
the old adage about the disagreement of Doctors has a good foundation. 
Yet so far as the record shows they worked with zeal and harmony, and 
no doubt did much to keep the threatened pestilence at bay. 

In January, 1867, J. X. Wise was elected Mayor to fill the unexpired 
term of ( !, L. ( 'ooper. 

In April, 1867, as also again in 1868, W. Pottinger was elected 
Mayor. 

In May, 1868, the Council entered upon the unlucky business of buy- 
ing the steam ferry boat "Paul Wilcox" for $9,000 in City Bonds. It was 
wrecked in July following. 

in 1869 I). II. Wheeler was elected Mayor; followed in 1870 by Am- 
brose Lazenby; in isTl-'T^ by M. L. White; and in 1873- , 74-'75-'7G by 
Dr. R. R. Livingston. 

RAILROADS. 

The earliest settlers of Plattsmouth, as soon as they became ac- 
quainted with the topography of the country, saw at once that some town 
near the south bank of the Platte, and near its junction with the Missouri, 

must eventually become an important railroad point. 

w 
A railroad must run up the Platte Valley. On the nort side the hills 

and rocky points fairly projected into the Platte, or approached so near 

that a roa 1 bad would bs very difficult and expensive for a long distance. 

While the south side was far more open and level; hence Plattsmouth 

musl be this R. R. point. 

I think there was no R. P. at that time ('."34) operating west of the 

Mississippi that pointed in this direction. But the B. & M. R. R. Co. had 

already been talked up, perhaps organized, and the settlers at Martin's 



44 HISTORl OF PLATTSMODTH AND, CASS COUNTY. 

trading post with " Sharp " eyes (no pun intended) saw the point. The 
Plattsmouth Town Company was organized as previously related, and pro 
ceeded to secure the site for a town. This, as first entered seems to have 
been confined to Sec. 18, Town 12, Range 14, a fractional section contain- 
ing 295 acres. Additions have since been made on every side, but the 
oast, where the river has operated upon the reverse rule, of subtraction, 
to considerable extent. On the north White and Townseml, on the west, 
Young, Hayes and Duke, and on the south Thompson and Styles have 
each made additions, amounting in all to some 675 acres. 

The city surveyed, platted and incorporated, and it was a poor talker 
who could not talk " rail road." A number of lots and depot grounds were 1 
set aside and reserved for R. R. purposes. The first official action on 
record, other than to watch and guard the R. R. lots, was on Feb. 5th, '59, 
to vote to Dr. Livingston " six city lots as compensation for services pre- 
viously rendered to the city, in working up the rail road matters, solely for 
the city's use, inasmuch as he had no property in the city." And again, 
Feb. 19th, 1859, the Dr. was appointed on behalf of the citv to go to Bur- 
lington and see what could be done there in the matter. These move- 
ments, followed uii by constant agitation, resulted in a special election in 
Plattsmoufch April 24th. 1869, when $50,000 in Bonds was voted by the 
city, and donations made by individual citizens of a large number of city 
lots to the B. & M. R. R. Company on condition that the Company should 
erect here, and maintain depot, shops, and general fixtures, making and 
continuing Plattsmouth the headquarters of the Company in Nebraska; 
putting the load through to the west cud of the county, all in good run- 
ning order and actual operation, within sixteen months after June 3d, 
lSli'.l. These conditions were accepted by the Company, and the contracl 
closed by W. Thielson, the authorized agent of the Company, and the 
City Council, June 15th, 1869. From this time action instead of talk was 
the order ort" the day, and early in July, in presence of a large crowd of 
spectators, John Fitzgerald, as Knight of the Spade, at the foot of Alain 
street, in Plattsmouth, displayed his strength and skill in "breaking 
ground" for the R. R. Track. In September. 1869, in a still larger and 
more excited crowd, the 

FIRST LOCOMOTIVE, 

the "American Eagle," was landed and gave her first scream on Nebraska 
soil. The long wished, and long listened far whistle was now a matter of 
unquestionable fact upon the streets of Plattsmouth. 



HISTORY OF PLATTSMOUTH, AND CASS COUNTY. 45 

NEWSPAPERS. 

The first newspaper published in Plattsmouth was the Plattsmouth 
Jeffersonian, by L. D. Jeffries, assisted by J. D. Ingalls, who finally suc- 
ceeded Jeffries as publisher. The Jeffersonian was first issued, probably, 
early in 1857. 

Late in 185S or early in 1859 the Platte Valley Herald was started by 
Alfred Thompson, who had published the Platte Valley Times at Pacific 
City, Iowa, but changed the name 'Times to Herald about the time he 
moved it to Plattsmouth. 

A few months after the establishment of the Herald, E. Giles moved 
the Cass County Sentinel from Rock Bluffs to Plattsmouth. 

The Sentinel died out or was sold out to Jos. I. Early, who for a 
short time issued the Democratic Tinges. 

In February, 1865, H. D. Hathaway started the Nebraska Herald 
and continued it till it passed into the hands of the present publisher, 
Jno. A. MacMurphy. 

In November, 1870, Fox & Fullilove issued the Cass County Demo- 
cmt, which was succeeded by the Nebraska Watchman, F. M. Mac- 
Don agh, editor. 

The Deutsche Wacht was started in the fall of 1875, but after a few 
months was sold out to Jno. A. MacMurphy. 

For short periods some of these papers have appeared as Dailies, but 
the support has not justified a long continuance. 

The religious organizations in the city are, 

TIIIC Ml TUOIUST EPISCOPAL CHURCH 

organized June 29th, 1857, with twenty members, by the appointment of 
L. G. Jeffries, Wm. McCarty and Ezra Bradford as Trustees, and the Rev. 
Hiram Burch as first Pastor. In Jim* 1 of I860, Bradford and Jeffries 
having removed, S. Duke and B. Spurlock were elected to fill their places. 
The successors of Mr. Burch in the Pastorate have served in the ^follow- 
ing order, viz. : Reverends Philo Gorton, J. Spelman, M. Ambury, J. G. 
Miller, David Hart, J. B. Maxfield, J. J. Roberts, J. W. Presson, Charles 
McKelvey, M. Adair and Mr. Orr, the present incumbent. The Trustees 
and Stewards, since 1860, have been S. Duke, J. Throckmorton, B. Spur- 
lock. M. L. White, G. H. Black, Joel Parcell, N. Jeans, R. M. Clark, N. R. 
Sharp, W. K. Montgomery, E. Davis, and others. The membership in 
1869 was about ninety: the present about eighty. 

THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH 

was organized in 1870 with live members and Rev. Frederick Alley, Pas- 



16 HISTORY OF PLATTSMOUTH AND, CASS COUNTY. 

tor. A church was erected and finished clear of debt. In 1S7_ Mr. Alley 
was succeeded by Rev. Ro^well Foster, and in 1873 by Rev. Mr. Manwell. 
The society was disbanded in 1874, with a total membership of thirty-five. 

THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

Bishop Talbot visited the city and held the first service here August 
3d, 18(50. J. A. Hagar, the first clergyman to hold regular service here, 
commenced June 16th, 18(51, and was succeeded by Rev. Geo. C. Betts, 
March 19th, 18(55. November 27th, 1864, the Parish organized under the 
name of "St. Johns"; Wardens and Vestry, John Black, John Pattimer, 
Win. II. Anderson, I). II. Wheeler and Win. Ford. 

A donation in 1865-'66 from Mrs. Jeptha Young, of St. Luke's 
Church, in New Jersey, induced the change of the name St. John's to 
St. Luke's and enabled the Church to erect a Rectory in 1865, and a 
Church in 1866-'67. The first services held in the Church building were 
on May 12th, 1867. The church was dedicated by Bishop Clarkson, and 
assistant clergy, June 16th, 1867. July 15th Rev. Henry Si. George 
Young was settled as Rector of the Parish. He has been succeeded by 
Rev. H. C. Shaw, in November, 1871; Rev. A. R Graves, November. 1872; 
ami II. B. Burgess, the present incumbent, in 1874. One hundred and 
five communicants had been enrolled up to 1873. 

TIIK PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 

Rev. Mr. King, in the summer of 1857, preached the first sermon, and 
Rev. I). L. Hughes, in early spring of 1858, the second. Mr. Hughes 
succeeded in an organization of the society in May. 1S58, with sixteen 
members. He continued his services until 1864. Rev. J. Y. Demorest 
succeeded him in 1865. In March, 1866, Rev. Mr. Cole commenced his 
services. He was followed. September, 1867^ by Rev. C. D. Roberts. 
Rev. D. W. Cameron became first »ettled Rector. He was succeeded in 
1872 by Rev. W. T. Bartle, and he in May. 1875, by Rev. J. T. Baird, 
the present incumbent. The present membership is about sixty. 

'I blE CATHUI.IC CHURCH. 

The first church building was erected in 1861, but there was no reg- 
ular Priest or services until '(>2, when Father Teckachet came and re- 
mained until '64. lie was succeeded by Father Emanuel until the Spring 
of '70. Father Hays then had charge till '~'2. He was succeeded, first, 
by Father Bobal, and then by Father Jennett, until May, '70. Since 
which time the church has had no regular Priest. In the Fall and Win- 
ter of '75-'76 the new church building was erected. The total member- 
ship about 275. The present membership is about 175. 



HISTORY OF PLATTSMOUTH, AND (ASS COUNTY. 47 

THE BAPTIST CHURCH 

was constituted October 1 7th, L856, with ten members. The Deacons of 
the Church, elected from time to time, have been Elias Gibbs, Moses R. 
Jackson, Thomas L. Kirk, and John Jackson. The following named per- 
sons have successively served the Church as Pastors, Elias Gibbs, 1\. S. 
Brenton, E. W. Hall, C. A. Miller, P. McLeod, and T.J.Arnold. The 
society owns a church building, erected in '72 at a cost of $1800. It is 
at present without a pastor. The membership has varied from ten to 
forty, the present number being about twenty-five. 

THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 

The Church was organized in May, 1859, by Elder T.J. Todd, with 
fourteen members. It was visited by Elder (diaries Evans. The minis- 
ters engaged in the Church service have been as follows. Elders J. Con- 
on .. D. R. Dungnn, P. Vogel, M. Comes, G. B. Mullis, C. Alton, and 8. 
]>. Bass, the present incumbent. The church has been visited by Elders 
O. E. Brown, Win. Tate, Dow Cook, R. C. Barrow, Charles Herd, Geo. R. 
Hand, Truax, Thomas, Bush, Yearnshaw, Chancellor Benton, Judge Dun- 
ham, Judd, and Watson. Thos. J. Todd has acted as Elder ever since 
the first organization of the Church. Elder Samuel Eikenberjr, now de- 
ceased, M. L. Phillips, and Isaac Wiles, Elders and Trustees; Jonathan 
Beckner and Thos. Wiles, Deacons; and Thos. Wiles, Clerk. Total mem- 
bership, one hundred and three; present, forty-six. 

Active members of the different religious organizations have kindly 
furnished the material from which the foregoing brief items were compiled. 

THE FIRST SESSION QF DISTRICT COURT 

held in this city is alleged by some to have been in the./?/'*/ school house, 
built in 1856, on the hill in the southwest part of the city, near Judge 
Gass' residence. It was held in April, 'oG, by Judge Edward Harden; 
A. C. Towner, Sheriff'; and M. W. Kidder, Clerk. 

It is said that the Grand Jury held their session in the grove adjoin- 
ing. This, considering the season, looks somewhat doubtful, yet may 
have been so; but as-the names of the jurors, both Grand and Petit, as 
well as the proceedings of the Court are missing, we will dismiss the 
subject. 

THE FIRST SETTLER 

and the first burial in the city have been previously noticed. 

THE FIRST BIRTH IN THE CITY 

was Fred. Mickelwait, on March 9th. L855, and although it seems to have 



4S HISTORY OF PLATTSMOUTH AND, CASS COUNTY. 

been a good time to have been born, judging from the young man's pres 
ent size and weight, I learn of no other births in the city for some time 
subsequently. 

There were several marriages in the County in 18;");") on record but 
no information recorded by which to ascertain whether they were married 
in the city or not. 

These sketches have already been extended far beyond the original 
design, yet we cannot close them without a few words upon 

COMPANY "A" OF THE FIRST NEBRASKA. 

Early in the Spring of 1861 the news of the firing upon the "Star of 
the West," by the Rebels in Charleston harbor, produced such an intense 
excitement throughout the country that words no longer furnished a suffi- 
cient escape valve for the indignation of the people. Acts and deeds 
alone could answer now. And in March, before any call had been made 
by the Government for troops, Dr. R R. Livingston, of Plattsmouth, is- 
sued posters, notices, &c, for meetings, speakings, and for volunteer 
enlistments, leading on the roll with his own name as private. The com- 
pany was soon made up. and on June 11th, 1861, mustered into the ser- 
vice of the United States. 

Previously, however, while yet at Plattsmouth, the ladies of the city, 
many of whom were interested and engaged in the matter, procured ma- 
terial and made up two beautiful Hags, and through the Rev. Philo Gorton 
presented them to the company. Dr. Livingston, who had been elected 
Captain of the Company, received the flags, and in return made a highly 
lauded and eloquent reply, and caused the entire Company to kneel and 
swear ever to cherish, follow and protect these flags. 

I regret that I am unable to learn and record the names of all the 
ladies engaged in this inspiring God-send to the soldiers, but have oh 
tained only the names of Mrs. J. D. Simpson, Mrs. Moses Dodge, Mrs. (). 
F. Johnson, Misses Mollie and Sadie Minshall. Sarah Raker. Mrs. 
Dr. Don elan, and Mrs. Clements. 

I also give the names of the members of this pioneer band in the 
war for the Union, omitting a few who by misdeeds and desertions dis- 
graced the company and the flags they had sworn to cherish and protect: 



history of plattsmouth, and cass county. 4!> 

officers: 
Robt. R. Livingston, Capt. J. W. Carruthers, 1st Corporal. 

A. F. McKinney, 1st Lieut. John Hess, -2d " 

N. J. Sharp, 2d Lieut. Ben. Hemple, 3d 

John G. Whiteloek. 1st Sergeant. W.B.Hart, 1th 

Geo. D. Webb, 3d " Win. L. Wells, 6th 

Daniel E. Kidder, 4th " E. L. Reed, 7th 

Win. W. Kennedy, 5th " Frank G. Kendall, 8th 

Robert A. Collins and (). S. Thompson, Musicians. 

( Jen. Hardwiek, Wagoner. 

privates: 

Aughe James E. Green Calvin C. Pool Win, H. 

Brown Stephen J. Herring Delevan S. Powers Henry C. 

l',aii- J. Wesley Hyatt Alvin Peters Sum. ' 

Boyce James Havgood J. McF. Pratt A. G. 

Berlin Fred Irish Wm. H, Prehn J. J. 

1 In ri is S. B. Johnson Jos. W. Randall Henry C. 

Bates Wm. II. Keeze F. E. Rose Cyrus 

Bates Israel F. Kinneman Richard Smith Laurence 

Bain Wm M. Levi II. L. Smith Hy. F. 

Colvin John W. Lamaster John Shin Asa 

Chalfant Wm. Montgomery Wesley Sharp Jos. G 

Child Everard S. .Mullen Joel R. Thompson Jacob 

Carrnichael Jacob E. MeMakin Andrew. C. Tozier Albert E. 

Donovan Edward Moore Win. ( !. Wister John W. 

DucotaC. C. Monterey Adolphus Wolcott Fred 

Decker Benj. C. Marquett T. M. Williams Ceylon 

Gester Thos. E. Pareell F. G. Wahl John ' 

In honoring the ladies who made and presented the flags, I would 
add that as there was a sharp rivalry as to which company in the Terri- 
tory should receive the honor of the name "A," the ladies worked all 
night to enable our company to obtain this distinction. 

METEOROLOGY. 

As the general welfare of a country depends to so large an extent 
upon its Meteorological conditions, I am induced to append a summary of 
the more important features of a record of ten years past. I should pre- 
fer carrying it hack to an earlier date; but ray earlier record was made in 
a form which will not compare, without much correction with the later, 
and then the collections could not he applied so as to be always reliable. 

The Meteorological year commences December 1st, instead of Jan. 
1st, as this divides the seasons into more natural periods than the common 
Civil year. The subsequent tables, unless otherwise indicated, are con- 
structed on this principle, as for instance. Dec. 1, 1866, begins year 1867. 



=' 


/ : i ? i . -: >: — -r — ~ _-. 




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■" 


M jC 3t -^ ic M t ~ :- :-. 




rH 


-.-. - 


s 






L " o 1-. = 

l~ to i - ~ 


a 

r. 




N'OVEMB 




- 7J 


a 




'-- 




1T3 C 71 -.C 7". br-K — : 

i - - . ~. 1 1 — - ~ a x o 




— ■"•-- ot-ci-ot-n 

•_ '-. - — ~ ■-. IC .7 £ 3 


X 


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10 ir i-r o O o o O :7 :7 



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X 


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53 


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-.1 -. •- nweoofio 

71 77 1- 3-. >: X O •- M i-7 

:i:i:i.-.i:i:i":i:i 




OS (11 

72.33 
72.03 
68.70 
74.20 
76. GO 
7::. on 
75 OS 
74.31 
71.20 













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i 5 cc ~ — t — • — i — i — i — c — 

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icor-cooo»-i(Mco-t »-. 

■ ■_- -c ■- ■- i • i - i - ' - ' - ' - 
. .: -j. i- -■ I j. ; /. t. s. 



HISTORY OK rLATTSMOTJTH, AND CASS COUNTY. 



51 



TABLE B. 

In the following table we have the mean temperature of the seasons 
and years, as also the toial snow ami rainfall, including melted snow. 



Year. 




Reasons. 


'! en p. 
of Seasons. 


Temp, 
of Year. 


Yearly 

Snow. 


Yearly Rain 

and 
Melted Snow 




Winter. 


19 "'! 






4.10 


inches. 


1866 


Spring. 
Summei. 


47.03 


47.53 


n.45 ins. 


8 34 
11.95 






Fall. 








7.31 


31.70 




Winter, 


20.15 






6.14 




18G7 


Spring. 
Sumiuer. 


39 20 
74.31 


16.67 


35 . 55 


13.17 
9.55 






Fall. 


52.57 






2.65 


31 51 




Winter. 


20.83 






2.85 




1868 


Spring. 
Summer. 


75.13 


18.84 


27.20 


14.55 
14.36 






FaJJj 


47.00 






6.15 


37.85 




Winter. 


21 .61 






5 . 85 




1SG9 


Spring. 
Summer. 


17.75 
72.41 


17.42 


39 00 


9.60 

21.55 






Fall. 
Winter. 


15 10 






7.35 


47. a? 




22 II 






4.00 




1876 


s;: i. : 
Summer. 


40.17 
70 00 


40. i a 


22 00 


9.50 
9.10 






Fail. 


47, .1-1 






8.90 


32.10 




Winter. 








2 25 




1X71 


Spring. 
Snninier. 


19.52 

71 .97 


16.82 


ls.no 


1 60 
19.70 






Fall, 


" 






5 Til 


32.25 




Winter. 


22 81 






t . 85 




1872 


Spring. 
Summer. 


37.80 

74.22 


45-09 


12 80 


7.70 

13.no 






Fall 


17.71 






8. SO 


31 .:',5 




Winter. 


1 , 7.". 






4.30 




1873 


Spring. 
Summer. 


46.92 

To. 22 


47.58 


10.00 


35.50 
12.20 






Fall. 
Winter. 


n 8£ 






7 . 15 


49. 15 






3.80 




1874 


Spring. 
Summer. 


•Is 13 
78.50 


19.8] 


38 35 


P. 75 

2(1.52 






Fall. 
Winter. 


51.13 
15.06 






15 el 


49.11 






2.08 




.875 


Spring. 
Summer. 


45 . 55 
71.07 


45.09 


2i 1.20 


12.48 

2S.70 






Fall. 








(1 96 


50 22 



The winter season in the above table includes December, January 
and February. Spring the next three. &c. 

TABLE "C." 

Gives the date of each day, from 1861 to 1870, inclusive, on which 
the mercury of the Thermometer has fallen below zero, as also the degree. 
December being taken as the first month of the succeeding civil year. 
The usual sign — denoting below zero. 









tabu: c. 








1861 


1862 


1863 


1864 186.". 1 800 1807 1808 




Jan. 20, -20° 


Dec. 23, - 6 


Jan. 16, -10° 


Nov. 27, - 2 j Nov. 22, 2 


Dec. 5. -10 


Dec. 11, - 1 Nov. 29, - V 




" 21, -24° 


" 27, - y 


Feb. 2, -10° 


'• 28, - 9 Dec. 7. - 


" 12, - 


Jan. 1, - s Jan. 6,-8 




" 2:1. - 3" 


Jan. 9, - 8 


5, - t>' 


" 29. - 4 '• 8, -10 


" 1:;, -20 


'•• 0, - 2 " 7, - 2 




" 24, - 6' 


'• 11, - 2 




Dec-. 14,-4 1 " 9, - 7 


'• 14,-10 


" 9, - 3 ! " 8, - 6° 




" 25, -13° 


" 12,-13 




" 30, - 2 1 " *10, -10 


" 15, -15 


" 21, - 3 " 9,-6 




" 27, -12 


'• 13, -12 




" 31,-24° " 11,-14 


" 10,-10 


" 20. - 4 " 11. - 6" 




" 31,- 6" 


" 14.- 7 




Jan. 1, -23 


Jan. 22, - 1 


'■ 21, 18 


" 27. -lo " 12, - 4 




Feb. 7, - V 


" 15, - s 




- -1, -15 


" 24.-10 


•■ 22, -30 


" 29, - 1 '• 15. -19 




" 8, - 3° 


'• 17,-17 




- 3, - 5 


" 25, -10 


" 28, 8 


Feb. 8, - :t " 10, -2ii 






'• is. - 2 




" 4,-4 


•' 20, -10 


Jan. Hi. 15 


■' 9,-10 " 17,-25 






" .30,- 7 




" 5. -10 


" 27, - 7 


" 17. 10 


•• 20 - 4 " is, -13 










" 0, -15 


" 28. -10 i " 18,-13 


" 21, -lo '• I'd. - s 










" 7. -:;- 


Mar. 2, - 5 ' " 19, - s 


'• 23. - 2 •' 21, - 8 








" s, - 


- i, - 6 " 20, -18 


•• 24,- « - 24, - :: 








" 9. s 


" 9. -17 " 21, - 5 


Mar. 12. - 9 " 27, -10 






1 


" 10. -10 I •• 24. - 


" 13,-2(1 " 29,-15 








Feb. 4, -10 


•' 14, - 9 " 31. - S 








•' 12,-17 


■• 10. - 1 Feb. 2,- 5 








" 11.-12 


•' 17, - 1 " 0, -12 








'• 15. 32 


" 21, -4" •• S, - 5 








" l(i. - 4 


9, -12 








.Mar. 15, 1 


'• 10. -12 






1 


" 11.-3 












.. 28, -10 





December lolli, 180.5, David Jardine froze to death. 

TABLE G. (Continued 



1869 


1S70 


1S71 


1872 


1S75 


1874 




is::, 1S7G 
1 


Dec. 8, - 9° 


Jan. 8, - 7' 


Dec. 21, - 4° 


Nov. 29. - ft" j Nov. 27, - 4 


Dec. 3. 


- 1 Dec. 28, - 3 Nov. 21, - 1 ' 


" 9,-8 = 


" 10, - l 


" 22. -11 


Dec. 3. - 


•' 28. - 1 


•• 20, 


- 7 


" 29, -10 " 29, - 7 


" 10, -14 


" 17, - 7 


" 23. -1G 


" 4,-12 


' 29. - 5 


Jan. 4, 




Jan. 2. - 5 Dec. 17. - 8 


•' 11,-30 


" 18,-13 


" 24, - 9 


" 19,- 1 


Dec. 9. - 3 


•• 14. 


- G 


3. - 1 Jan. la. - 2 


" 23, - 5° 


Feb. 19, - s 


•• 20. - 3 


" 20. 1 


" 10, r 


•' 15. 


-lo 


4. -10 Feb. 1, -12 


" 24, - 8 


" lid. -12 


Jan. 13, - 9 


- 25. - 


•• 20. - r. 


" 23, 


- 9 


" 5. -IS 




Jan. 25, - 2 


Mar. 8. - 2 


" 14,-4 


" 20, - 4 


" 2'. -20 


" 24, 


-14 


0, - s 


4, - 3 


Feb. 4, -10° 


" 11. - 5 


" 17, - 4 


Jan. 23, -10 


" 23, -20 


Feb. <). 


- 1 


" S. -19 


Mar. l'ii, - 4 


" 22.- 1° 


" 15,-11 


'■ 18,- 7 


" 24. - 2 


" 24, -1C 


•• 23, 


- 4 


•' 9, -I'l 




" 27, - 7' 




Feb. y. - 7 


" 25. - 


" 25, - 3 


" 21. 


- 


•• 11). - 9 




Mar. 4, - 2 




'■ 10. - 2 


" 27. - 5 


•• 20. - S 






- 12.-11 




" 6. - 5 




" 12. -10 


•' lis, -11 


" 27, -10 






" 13, -20 




" 15, - 4 




- 13,-3 


" 31. 12 
Fel). 12. - 1 


Jan. .8. - 3 
9. - 9 






•' 14,-19 
" 15.-KI 










- 13. - 


" 10. -14 






" 10, 1 








•' 14. - 5 


" 10, - s 
" 17.-17 




" IS, - 7 
'• 30. - 3 










•• IS, - 7 






" 31. -10 










'• 24. - 7 






Feb. 2, - 4 










'• 27. - s 






.. 3, -12 










" 28, -23 






4, -21 










■' 29, -14 






•• 0, - 












Feb. l. -10 






" 8. - 2 












" 2,-4 






" 9, - 2 












" 20, - 3 






" 15, - 1 












" 22, - 4 






" 17. - 9 












•• 2.3, - 2 






" 25. - 7 












Mar. 3, - 4 






" 27, - 1 


















Mar. 3, - 3 





In these sixteen years only twice as low as 32 and four times to 30 . 



HISTORY OP PLATTSMOUTH, AND CASS COUNTY. 53 

During the same period of 19 years, embraced in table "C," the mercury 
has risen to 100° and upwards as follows: 

1857. July 15, 102°, August 5, 100°, August 13, 101°. 

1859. July 14, 101°. 

1860. July 15, 100°, July 20, 104°, July 24, 100°. 

1861. August 3, 100°, August 4, 104°, August 5, 104°. 
1866. July 23, 100° : August 6, 101°. 

1868. July 18, 100°, 20, 106°, 21, 100°, 28, 101°. 

1873. August 30, 101°. 

1874. July 7, 102°, 8, 105°, 14. 103°, 18, 100°, 23, 104°, 24, 107, 25, 113°, 31, 
110°, August 9, 100°, 10, 111°, 19, 100°, 21, 102°. 

The excessive heat of these two months, is I think unparalelled on any 
record ever made in the United Spates. During this period of 19 years, 
eleven have passed without raising the mercury to 100 degrees. 

The degree of heat indicated by the thermometer will vary much ac- 
cording to its location and position. In a narrow valley, or a street closely 
built up, with little or no wind, or sun, the cold air settles, and the ther- 
mometer will indicate less heat by several degrees than on a level with the 
surrounding country. And again, with a bright sun, the reflection and 
radiation from the sides of the valley, or from the buildings and streets 
may raise it several degrees. Hence the general level of the country is 
the position to obtain the heat of the general atmosphere. 

Wind however high, has no effect upon the mercury, except as it dis- 
places the general body of the atmosphere, and introduces one of more or 
less heat. Yet upon our bodies it produces much effect, by removing the 
heat generated within. 

With a high thermometer, say from 80 degrees, and not above blood 
heat (98 degrees), a brisk wind springing up produces a cooling sensation, 
as though the mercury was falling, while it may lie continuously rising. 

The wind removes the animal heat from our bodies and replaces it 
with cooler air; till the surrounding air is up to 98 degrees or above, when 
instead of feeling cool and soothing, it only aggravates our distress, and 
increases the heat. 

Let us go out early in a clear mid winter's morning — there is no wind, 
everything is still — stimulated and toned up by the bracing air; we ex- 
claim what a fine — what a beautiful morning! 

The heat generated in our bodies remains confined in our clothing 
and around us; and were it not for open and exposed points, as ears, nose 
and fingers, whispering "Rather cold," we should pronounce it a warm, 
pleasant morning. 



54 HISTORY OF PLATTSMOUTH AND, CASS COUNTY. 

As we go in, we cast an eye at the thermometer, and are astonished to 
see it indicates extreme cold, perhaps 20 degrees below zero. We can 
hardly credit the truth of the indication. 

Two or three hours pass, and we go out again; with the rising sun, 
the wind has risen; it blows fiercely; we shrink from it, with "Oh how 
bitter — how fearfully cold," and hasten indoors to avoid freezing. Again 
we look at the thermometer, to see what lower depth it has fallen, and lo, 
it has risen ten, fifteen, or twenty degrees! The wind now sweeps the heat 
from on r clothing, and the surface of our bodies, and leaves us exposed to 
the cold air some 100 degrees colder than our bodies. 

The body is a very unreliable thermometer, unless observed with rea- 
son and judgment, 

The force or velocity of the wind is now generally rated on a s<*aleof 
10, as follows: 

1. Indicates a very light breeze of two miles an hour'. 

2. Indicates a very gentle breeze of 4 miles an hour. 

3. Indicates a very fresh breeze of 12 miles an hour. 

4. Indicates a very strong wind of 25 miles an hour. 

5. Indicates a very high wind of 35 miles an hour. 
G. Indicates a gale of 45 miles an hour. 

7. Indicates a very strong gale of 60 miles an hour. 

8. Indicates a very violent gale of 75 miles an hour. 
S). Indicates a hurricane of 90 miles an hour. 

10. Indicates a most violent hurricane of 100 miles an hour. 

This velocity is measured and registered by a rather costly instrument 
named an Anemometer. 

Without an Anemometer, the observer notes the direction from which 
the wind comes, and estimates its force as 1, 2, 3, and 0. This observa- 
tion and record is made three times a day — the same as with other meteor- 
ological instruments. In table "D," I give a summary of these observa- 
tions for the year 1874. 



HISTORY OF PLATTSMOUTH, AND CASS COUNTY. 



55 



TABLE "D." 
Direction and force of winds for the year 1874: 





N. 


NE. 


E. 


SE. 


s. 


SW. 


W. 


NW. 


Total. 


Dee. 1873. 


14 


2 


3 


9 


22 


7 


14 


25 


96 


Jan. 1874. 


14 


. 6 


3 


5 


55 


11 


2 


39 


135 


February. 


21 


7 


5 


19 


17 


10 


7 


19 


105 


March. 


30 


23 


8 


28 


13 


20 


16 


12 


159 


April. 


L3 


30 


6 


58 


23 


8 


11 


19 


168 


May. 


4 


14 


4 


64 


68 


5 


8 


L5 


182 


June. 





•> 


5 


59 


63 


10 


8 


13 


100 


July. 


8 


6 


27 


26 


74 


15 


10 


6 


172 


August. 


21 


6 


55 


37 


26 


7 


1 


4 


157 


September. 


14 


5 


16 


28 


17 


25 


9 


20 


134 


October. 


6 


4 


12 


11 


33 


20 


25 


17 


128 


November. 


25 


2 


6 


5 


43 


22 


7 


31 


141 


Total. 


17d 


~107 


1 50 


7U9 


454 


765 


Us 


~220 


1733 



By exchanging the totals of March and April, as also by transferring 
50 from the total of South. t<> the total of North, and this gives nearly 
the mean of ten years past. 



ADDENDA. 
The Probate Judges for Cass County, elected for two years, were 
Abram Towner, appointed; H. C. Wolph; Charles West; Robert Clark; 
E. T. Harmon, who died some ten days afterward; D. H. Wheeler, ap- 
pointed; J. W. Marshall, appointed and then elected; W. D. Gage; A. 
L. Child; H. E. Ellison; W. H. Newell. 

county surveyors: 
Win. Young, three terms; A. B. Smith, three terms; Geo. W. Fair- 
tield. two terms; P. C. Patterson; Win. Younsr, two terms more. 



IN CONCLUSION. 

Many, whose names and deeds have equal claim to notice, and per- 
haps better than many of those which appear in the foregoing sketches, 
may feel wronged, and possibly imagine offense intended in their omis- 
sion. 



5G HISTORY OF PLATTSMOUTH, AND CASS COUNTY. 

To such let me say, intentionally or knowingly I have wronged no 
one. Our early records are many of them badly mutilated and others 
entirely missing. I have made a most thorough search of them and 
could build only of such material as I could find. In many cases I have 
believed that individuals were conspicuous actors where no record of 
their names was left, and wrote to them personally for information. Some 
promptly furnished the information sought, and thus enabled me to record 
it. Others made no response whatever. Whose fault is it if their names 
and acts are omitted? Memory and recollection are unreliable data for 
transactions of twenty years past; and often very contradictory. Yet in 
many cases they are the only guide that is left. I have sifted and har- 
monized as far as possible, }-et sometimes I may have been led by them 
into error. A. L. C. 



AN APPENDIX 

From the Records and Files of the 

PIONEERS" ASSOCIATION OF CASS COUNTY, NEB. 



On November 29th, 1875, in pursuance of a call through the Nebras- 
ka Herald, for a meeting of the Old Settlers of Cass County, Nebraska, 
the foil owing- persons met at the Court House, to wit: R. R. Livingston 
A. L. Child, Thomas Thomas, Wm. S. West, G. H. Black, P. P. Gass, C. 
P. Moore, J. W. Haines. Miss Julia Child, C. Ripple, E. Donovan, and D. 
H. Wheeler. 

On motion, A. L. Child was elected Chairman, and 1). H. Wheeler, 
Secretary. 

After a general interchange of views and opinions, a committee, con- 
sisting of R. R Livingston, D. H. Wheeler, Thomas Thomas, Win. S. 
West, and G. H. Black, was appointed to draft a Constitution, By-laws, 
&c, for an "Old Settlers' Club." 

On December 7th, 1875, a second meeting adopted a ( ^institution and 
By-laws, which, by subsequent amendments, are as follows, viz.: 

PIONEERS ASSOCIATION OF CASS COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

t'OXSTITl TIOX. 

Article 1. This association shall be known as the "Pioneers' As- 
sociation of Cass County. Nebraska." 

Art. ± The leading objects of this association shall be the procur- 
ing of, and record of Statistics. History, Privations, Incidents and Ad- 
ventures of the first settlers in Cass County, Nebraska. Thus reviving 
the recollections and sympathies of the past; strengthening the old bonds 
of union, and transmitting the record of the hardships of those fast pass- 
ing away, to future generations. 



58 HISTORY OF PLATTSMOUTH, AND CASS COUNTY. 

Art. 3. The officers of this association shall be a President, two 
Vice Presidents, a Secretary, Recorder and Treasurer. 

Art. 4. The oldest settler, as shown on the association records, and 
who has conformed to the requirements for membership, shall be the 
President of the association during his life time; and in his absence the 
oldest settler present shall be President pro tem. 

Art. 5. The two Vice Presidents shall be the two members present 
at any meeting of the association next in age to the President, ranking 
according to priority of settlement as first and second Vice Presidents. 
The terms "age," "old" -and "oldest" as applied to any member of this 
association, should be understood as referring to date of settlement. 

Art. 6. The President shall be assisted in the discharge of his du- 
ties by the two Vice Presidents, who shall take seats, at each meeting, on 
his right and left. 

Art. 7. The duties of President and the two Vice Presidents shall 
be those usually required of such officers in similar associations. 

Art. 8. The duties of the Treasurer shall be to receive all moneys 
from the hands of the Secretary, keep a just and regular account of the 
same, and pa}' the same out only upon the order of the association. 

Art. '.». The Secretary shall keep a full account of all proceedings 
at any meeting of the association, and shall receive all moneys and pay 
them over to the Treasurer, taking his receipt therefor. 

The Recorder shall make an Historical Record of all such papers as 
shall be furnished him by the Revising Committee: and shall be ex-offieio 
Secretary of the Revising Committee. 

Art. 10. Any person who made an actual settlement in ('ass Coun- 
ty, or Nebraska, prior to January 1st, 1861; and who has resided in Ne- 
braska; and is at the time of his application for membership a resident 
of Cass County, may become a member of this association by furnishing 
the Secretary with the date of his or her settlement, paying to the Secre- 
tary an admission fee of fifty cents (50 cts. ) ami subscribing to the Con- 
stitution and By-laws of this association. 

Prodded, 1st, That no lady shall be called upon to pay a member- 
ship fee, or to pay annual dues. 2d. The association shall have power, at 
any regular meeting, to admit any person as an honorary member by a 
three fourths vote of the members present. Said honorary member be- 
ing admitted to all the privileges of the association except voting. 

Art. 11. Any person giving to the association a false date as to his 
or her settlement, with the intention of deceiving the Society, shall be 
considered dishonored, and shall be held to be unworthy of membership, 



HISTORY OF PIATTSMOUTH, AND CASS COUNTY. 59 

and shall be expelled by a majority vote at any meeting of the associa- 
tion. 

Art. 12. This Constitution may be altered or amended by a two- 
thirds vote of the members present at any mooting of the association; 
provided that notice of said proposed change shall have been given at a 
meeting of the association, at least one week preceding action on said 
amendment. 

BY-LAWS. 

Art. 1. There shall be two regular meetings of this association 
each year. 

One annual meeting on the last Tuesday in November of each year; 
at which the Secretary, Recorder and Treasurer shall he elected; and one 
semi-annual meeting on the last Tuesday in May. And such called and 
adjourned meetings as may be found desirable. All such meetings shall 
be held at the County Sent of the County, and be opened at 1 o'clock p. 
M., unless otherwise directed by the association. 

Art. :. Auxiliary associations may be formed in each precinct of 
the County, which auxiliaries shall report to this association at each reg- 
ular meeting. 

Art. ',). There shall lie two committees appointed at each regular 
meeting of the association. One. of one member from each precinct in 
the County, whose duty it shall be to collect, write out, and report to the 
Revising Committee all such hardships, incidents, adventures, and anec- 
dotes of early days as will best exhibit the labors, trials, privations and 
pleasures of the old pioneer. 

The second committee shall consist of three members, and shall be 
styled the Revising Committee, whose duty shall be to receive all reports 
and communications from the precinct committees and members of the 
association, and revise the same, as the best interest and harmony of the 
association may require; and then tile the same with the Recorder, who 
shall record them in the Historical Records of the Association. 

Art. 4. The President, of the association shall annually appoint a 
Finance Committee and an Executive Committee, each of which shall 
consist of five members, a majority of either of which shall he empower- 
ed to act. 

The Finance Committee shall audit all accounts against the associa- 
tion, and no bill shall be ordered paid unless the same shall have been 
favorably reported upon by said committee. 



60 HISTORY OF PLATTSMOUTH, AND CASS COUNTY. 

The Executive Committee shall have power to call the association 
together, and shall control any business required to lie transacted when 
the association is not in session, unless otherwise provided for. All ac- 
counts against this association shall be presented at a regular, called, or 
adjourned meeting - of the association, and be referred to the Finance Com- 
mittee to be audited; when, if audited, the Secretary shall draw an order 
on the Treasurer therefor, which order shall not be paid unless signed by 
the President and attested by the Secretary. 

It shall be the duty of the Secretary to call a meeting of the Associ- 
ation upon the request of the Executive Committee, or any live members 
of the association. 

Art. ">. An annual contribution of Twenty five cents shall be paid 
by each male member to defray the expenses of the association; payable 
at the regular November meeting. Credit on the Secretary's book of 
such payment shall entitle those so credited to vote at any meeting of the 
association during the year following. 

Art. 6. Any offensive remarks, reflections or allusions to any mem- 
ber, by another member, during any meeting of the association, shall be 
deemeu out of order, and persistent offensive remarks, or violations of 
the rules of the association, shall subject the offender to exclusion from 
the association. 

Art. 7. The order of business at each meeting of the association 
shall be, unless otherwise ordered by the association : 

1. Reading the minutes of the last regular, adjourned and called 
meetings. 

2. Report by the Secretary of all dues ami membership fees paid bv 
members since last annual meeting. 

?>. Reading of record of Revising Committee. 

4. Elections and appointment of Committees, (if any are pending.) 

5. Reports of such experiences as members have in mind, or have 
been reminded of by reading records and reports of the Revising Com 
mittee. 

(i. Miscellaneous business. 

Art. 8. These By-laws may be altered or amended bv a two third 
vote of the members present at any meeting of the association. Provided 
that notice of said proposed change shall have been given at a meetino- 
of the association, at least one week preceding action on said amendment. 



HISTORY OF PL ATTS MOUTH, VND CASS CnFXTY. 



61 



NAMES OF MEMBERS. 



DATS: ol SETTLEMENT 
IN STATE & COUNTY. 



P. O. ADDRESS. 



Daniel II. Wheeler 

Charlotte A. Wheeler,. 

Win. L. Wells, 

A. L. Child 

Win. Gilmour 

VVm. S. West 

.John W. Haines. 

M. B. Cutler 

W. H. Schafer 

J. W. Jennings 

F. M. DoiTinirton 

'J'hinnas Thomas 

Wni. Young, 

I'. L. Wise,' 

.!. W. Marshall 

J. G. Haves, 

A. B. Todd, 

E. u. Todd 

B. Albin 

Ben. Hempel 

A. I.. Sprague 

Win. Gilmour, jr 

Jennie K. Wells 

J. < '. ( rilniore 

John A. MaeMurphy, 

J. MeF. Haygood,.. 

J!. Siebold 

T. J. Todd, 

Levi Walker, 

Abrani Hull 

Julia E. Child. 

E. E. Cunningham 

Geo. E Pronger, 

Mrs. Susannah Thomas,. . - 

C. H. Kin- 

L. W. Patterson 

Mary Patterson 

Geo. W. Fairfield 

Thus. Wiles 

Samuel L. Thomas, 

F. D. Lehnhofl 

Bradford Cole 

A. B. Tayior, 

E. s. Sharp, 

Mary E. Todd, 

W. H.Smith, 

V. M. Beaver, 

Henry Fikenberry, 

Joshua Gappen, 

Joshua Murray, 

L. F. Johnson, 

Wm. HeroU 

Mrs. E. C. Straight, 

Mrs. S. A. Thomas, 

Mrs. Eliza Siebold 

Lewis H. Young 

Mrs. Sarah Young, - 

Mrs. E. M. Walker 

Amanda M. Miller, 

Mrs. M. C. Dorrington. ... 

L. C. Johnson, 

Mrs. Lou S. Johnson, 

Mrs. Sarah a. Livingston,. 
E. J. Craig, 



J i . 15, 1856, iPlatlsinouth. 

July. 21, 1857 | 

Vpril 26, 1857 

10, L857 

1854 

June 19, 1856, 

June. 1857 

August !6, 1-857 

5, 1854 

Nov.'...' - ;. (855 

June 20, !85(i 

Julv. 1856 

■ 3, 185-1, 

May 1, '■'■>' ••••• 

I 17. 1856 

i. 1857 

5. 1851 



16, 1858 



Anna Craig 

Mr-. M. M. Richardson,. 

Mrs. Mary Haines 

W. L. Tucker 



i >{) 

rtaj ; . 1858 

Ill Burl Co . April, 1857 

■ i I ■ : i ' 854 

June 1, 1857 

. 557 

>. 1854 

l. : 

.hi: i 28, 1857 

I • 7 

• li ie 12, 1853 



June. 1859 

August, 1854, 

Align t, 1854, 

l'9, 1856,.... 

Fall Of 1854 

iibei . 1856 

May IS, 1859, 



Bock Bluffs. 
Plattsmouth. 



Might Mile Grove 
ITattsmouth. 











856, 

. !856,... 

er l, 3854 

10, 1856... 
obe 15, 1855, ■ . 
Novem ■ 
Octobei 

., i iber 15, 1854 

March 7, 1855 

March 7. 1S55 

May IS, 1855 

January 1, 1859, 

.,,■ 10, 1856,.. 
- 13, 1859 

. i860 

I er. I860, 

356 







Boek Bluffs. 

Concord. 

Plattsmoutb. 

Bock Bluffs, 
l'lattsinouth. 



Three Groves. 
Plattsmouth. 



62 



HISTORY OF PLATTSMOUTH, AND CASS COUNTY. 



NAMES OF MEMBERS. 






DATE of SETTLEMENT 
IN STATE & COL NT Y. 




Mrs. S. E. Tucker i 44: May 7, 1856 

Mrs. Nancy E. Pattonj? | 23 Marcli 13, 1855 

Mrs. Maria Gappen ! 40' November 6. L856, 



Mrs. Cora W. Child, 
Mrs. Elizabeth Herold.. 

Ceo. YV. Thomas, 

Geo. D. Amick 

Shadrach Cole, 

Jacob Vallery, sen., 



64 June In. 1857 

35 October, 1854 

20 September. 1856, 

45 October, 185(5, 

58 June 5, 1857, 

.. April 10, 1850, 



The members of the Plattsmouth Brass Band, of which more here- 
after, in response to their most excellent music on the occasion of a Pio- 
neers' Re-union on September lGth, 187G, were unanimously received by 
the Association as honorary members, notwithstanding two of them, L. 
F. Johnson and S. L. Thomas had been previously received as members 
under the regular forms. 

THE HON O R A K Y M E M B E R S 

are Lorenzo F. Johnson, Samuel L. Thomas, Geo. W. Thomas, L. D. John- 
son, L. 0. Johnson, Fred Black, and H. W. Sage, of the Brass Band; and 
the Rev. H. B. Burgess. 

PRESIDENT. 

By the provisions of the Constitution, W. II. Shafer, the member who 
made the earliest settlement in Cass County, May 25, 1854, is the Presi 
dent of the Association. E. S. Sharp made an earlier settlement, March, 
1854, but so far has not been an active member. Win, Young and Ben]. 
Albin are Vice Presidents. 

THE ELECTIVE OFFICERS. 

Wm. L. Wells was first elected Secretary, and on his resignetion J. 
A. MacMurphy was elected, and still remains as Secretary. Thomas 
Thomas was first elected Treasurer, and again re-elected to the same office. 
A. L. Child elected and still remains Recorder. 

On the occasion of the 

CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION, 

on July 4th, 187(5, by the citizens of Cass County, the Pioneers' Associa 
tion was invited to join in the celebration, and assigned a leading position 
in the procession to the selected grounds. The Association accepted of 
the invitation, and in order that its members might be distinguished in 
the crowd, procured 



HISTORY OF PLATTSMOUTH, AND CASS COUNTY. 



03 



BADGES, 

in form and description as follows: 



O 

to 

QO 



PIONEERS' ASSOCIATION. 

JULY, 4, 1870. 



GO 



On arrival upon the ground the Association was conducted to re- 
served seats upon the stand. 

In response to these honors bestowed upon the Association, that 
body, at a meeting held on July 8th, unanimously 

"Resolved, That the earnest thanks of the Pioneers' Association of 
Cass County be tendered to the officers of the Centennial Celebration on 
July 4th, 1870, for their recognition of the claims of the Association, as 
also for their kindness and courtesy on that occasion. And that we most 
thankfully appreciate the kind remarks and allusions of the orators and 
speakers of the day. The Association also tenders its hearty congratula- 
tions to the citizens and officers of the day on the entire and unalloyed 
success of the celebration." 

August 19th, 1867, a meeting was called to consider the question of a 

PIONEERS' RE-UNION OR PICNIC. 

A second meeting followed, at which it was resolved to hold a Re- 
union on the Centennial grounds, near Plattsmouth, on September 10th. 

To add interest to the affair a few individuals, who in 1856 were 
members of the first brass band that ever played in the Territory of Ne- 
braska, volunteered to reorganize the band, and prepare music where- 
with to regale the Association on that occasion. 

Mr. Thos. Thomas, under the inspiration of the hou .-, produced the 
following' rallying cvy for the pioneers: 

THE PIONEEIIS. 
Of Pioneers we are a band. 

Who came in early days ; 
In search of homes in the Indian land, 

And settled here to stay. 
On young Nebraska's rolling plains, 

Hardship and toil we've shared ; 
And here we now have met again, 

To share a feast prepared. 
Come one come all, old settlers, come. 

In love and liberty : 
And make this day the special home 

Of joy and pleasure free. 
Free to think and free to speak, 

Let's all in union join : 
This social feast we'll seek to make 

Enduring on our minds. 



64 HISTORY OF PLATTSMOUTH, AND CASS COUNTY. 

On September 10th, the Association formed a procession on Main 
street, and with flags and banners, preceded by the band, marched to the 
grounds. 

The exercises of the day were opened by prayer by the Rev. H. B. 
Burgess. Music, speaking, a most bountiful supply of the "creature 
comforts'", and regular business followed. 

L. F. Johnson, S. L. Johnson, L. D. Johnson, L. C. Johnson, Geo. W. 
Thomas, Fred. Black and H. W. Sage, members of the brass band, after 
much labor, drill, and expense for instruments, were well prepared with 
many pieces of old time music, which with the repeated singing of "The 
Pioneers' 1 by the whole crowd, to the air of "Auld Lang Sync," added 
much to the enjoyment of the day. It was altogether a very happy one, 
and one which we hope may be many times repeated. 

At the various meetings of the Association many communications 
have been read by the different members, portraying early experience, 
trials, incidents, anecdotes, &c, from which we select a few. 



SCENES ANT) INCIDENTS OF EARLY LIFE IN NEBRASKA. 

15Y WM. YOUNG. 

On the night of the third of November, 1854, I camped with my 
family near a spring in the grove where I now live: and next morning 
cut logs and laid a foundation for a house, and staked out my claim. I 
then returned to my home, near Glen wood, in Iowa. 

On March 5th, 1855, I moved my family onto my claim, bringing all 
my stock, even to a few stands of bees, as they were the only living things 
that could save the honey that for ages had gone to waste on our bound 
less plains. 

For a few days our home was in a tent, while we were building a 
cabin, which we covered with clapboards. Soon after we had got into our 
cabin two Indians came wading through the snow, and came in to warm. 
They staved all day, and, as it was still snowing hard, wanted to stay all 
night. They slept by the fire till morning and then traveled on. And 
now for breaking and fencing our farm. The breaking was done with 
ox teams; the fencing was a ditch for a year or two, then a hedge around 
fifty six acres, the farm of the first year. The hedge was subsequently 
extended around the most of my land, and it has served not only lor a 
fence, but I have cut cords of wood from it, besides fence posts and poles. 



HISTORY OF PLATTSMOUTH, AND r.\-:-\ COUNTY. ti'i 

In the Government survey the lines cut my land both ways, and I 
now eat on one quarter section and sleep on another. The line running 
through my bedroom. 

When the land came into market, as I had used my pre-emption right 
in Iowa, five different men entered my land, and I had to buy them out at 
high figures, paying forty percent, for the money to do so with; and still 
lost sixteen acres with the hedge around it which 1 had cultivated three 
years, thus by taking a block out of the corner, leaving my farm in a bad 
shape. 

Soon after I moved on to my chum a double wedding occurred at 
John Clemmons] while he lay on his death bed. His two daughters were 
married at the same time by Abram Towner. The old gentleman died a 
few days afterward, being the second death of the settlers. (Samuel Mar- 
fin being the first.) 

In the first county election the writer was elected County Surveyor, 
and surveyed the first county road, from Plattsmonth to Weeping Water, 
fourteen miles. The first circuit rider was Elder Gage, and the first camp 
meeting was in Buck's grove. The first celebration was at Rock Bluffs, 
where we often met with our guns to drill and talk about Indians. Gen. 
Thayer met with us sometimes. We took one scout up the Weeping 
Water, in search of Indians, and camped over night, but saw none. In 
those times wolves, wild cats, and rattlesnakes were plenty; but by help 
of dogs and guns the wolves and wild cats were exterminated. We, with 
the help of a good dog. killed two large buffalo wolves with an axe. 



AN INTRODUCTION TO NEBRASKA. 

BY A. T.. CHILD. 

On April 10th, 1857, in company with :; son of fourteen or fifteen 
years of age, and a son-in-law, I arrived at Glen wood, Iowa, on my way 
to Cedar Creek, in Cass County, Nebraska. Learning, at Glenwood, that 
the Missouri river was veiy high, covering the bottom from bluff to bluff, 
and that there was no possible crossing for our teams here, we turned 
northward to Council Bluffs, where there was a steam ferry. 

The road followed the high lands for a while and then descended to 
the Missouri bottom, where, for long distances, it was covered with water. 
Toward night the weather turned cold and snow began to fall. We found 
refuge in an old "dug out,'* probably evacuated by some squatter in the 



66 HISTORY OF PI.ATTSMOUTH, AND CASS COUNTY. 

rush for Nebraska in 1854. It was large enough to shelter both ourselves 
and team. Some wood gathered, a roaring lire built, and we very much 
enjoyed our home comforts. But some water must be had for our supper 
operations. Surely there was plenty of it, for the river, of some four or 
five miles in width, reached within a few feet of our shelter; but we had 
to wade out some twenty or twenty-five rods before we could find depth 
enough to get what we could call water, and even then it was largely of 
mud. The snow fell all night and through the following day, and with a 
fierce northwest wind it became very cold. 

We reached Council Bluffs before noon of the 17th, and there found 
the little town swarming and overcrowded by emigrants, like us, for 
Nebraska. They were also blockaded by the river. An old channel be- 
tween the ferry landing and Council Bluffs was filled and had become a 
rapid river of some thirty feet in width. No boat or skiff was left to 
cross teams or even footmen; and till this was crossed we could not reach 
the ferry boat. It was understood that the ferry company were at work 
to open communication, and all we had to do was to wait. The river 
bank was an open, bleak place, the wind was blowing fiercely' and the air 
filled with blinding snow. Yet hundreds stood and waited there all day, 
in their impatience to get over. 

Many boxes of matches were sacrificed, ami much persevering effort 
directed toward raising a fire with the wet and sodden brush in and near 
the water. An occasional blaze would raise a shout, and a dash of wind 
and snow would drown every spark, and the shout would then be replaced 
by very emphatic, and sometimes rather ugly words, (-'hilled through 
and through by the bitter storm, impatient and tired of waiting, we de- 
tached a horse from the team, on which my boy mounted, and put him at 
the stream. The horse with a jump and plunge went out of sight in the 
water, the boy's head alone remaining visible. The horse rose and struck 
out for the opposite bank, on reaching which the horse was turned about 
and started back, but, no longer directed by the reins, turned off down 
stream. We followed and secured him some distance below. A race of 
a mile or two over the prairie to restore the almost frozen horse, a thor- 
ough rubbing down, blankets, ami a distant stable closed that experiment. 
Meanwhile, the boy was having a cool time, also, trying to shelter himself 
in his saturated clothes, behind some old tireless cabins, with an oeca 
sional foot race to restore the almost frozen circulation. At length a skiff 
was brought from the ferry boat, and the footmen crowded over, and we 
were soon sheltered in the Douglas Mouse at Omaha, where, that night, it 



HISTORY OF PLATTSMQUTH, AND CASS COUNTY. ()7 

would have puzzled a spectator to have selected from the mass of crowded 
and mixed limbs, on any floor of that house, the proper ones belonging 
to any one body. 

The team and son-in-law were left at Council Bluffs till the team 
could be got over. On the next morning, April 18th, the sun shone out 
bright and clear, and my son and I started on foot for the Platte. On the 
level, where undisturbed by the wind, the snow lay about sixteen inches 
deep, but over the prairies it was drifted and piled in the usual way of 
such storms. As what tracks and roads had then been made over the 
prairies were all covered and hid by the snow, we, with regard to only 
an occasional view of the bluffs and timber on the south of the Platte at 
Cedar Island, made as straight a line for them as we could. Huge drifts 
often turned us to right or left, and made a long and hard road to travel. 
The white and dazzling snow reflected the bright rays of the sun in our 
eyes and faces till we were sunburned and almost blind. Still we pushed 
on, reached the Platte, found the ferry, paid $1 a piece for crossing, and 
just after dark found our way up to Samuel Halm's cabin, near the top of 
the bluffs; the door stood open, displaying a bright tire upon the hearth. 
Utterly exhausted and worn out, we waited for no ceremony but, Indian 
like, walked in without leave or liberty, and demanded food and shelter. 
Mr. Halm replied that his wife was sick and abed, that he himself was 
but little better, yet had but just finished a large washing. They had but 
a trifle of food in the house and knew not when or where the next could 
be found; and, although he much regretted it, he could not accommodate 
us. We replied that we equally regretted his difficulties, but, unless re- 
moved by force greater than our own, we neither could, would or should 
go one step further that night; rest and sleep, for which the floor would 
answer all purposes, we must have. Further explanation disarmed him of 
his first somewhat hostile feelings, caused by our unceremonious entrance. 
Food and rest and a very pleasant acquaintance followed. On the morn- 
ing of the 19th, when ready to start, Mr. Halm directed us south, over 
the unbroken plain of dazzling snow, for about a mile, where a trail from 
Plattsmouth, westward, passed, which, if found and followed, would lead 
us to the settlement of old friends on Cedar Creek. 

We wandered over many a mile, through the snow, and found no ves- 
tige of a road or trail. We then turned in a northwest direction for the 
high land overlooking the Platte, which, when gained, we followed to the 
valley of Turkey Creek. We there found a cabin and learned that we 
were but little over a mile from our destination, which was soon reached. 

We were confined for a day or two with our badly burned faces and 



(58 HISTORY OF PLATTSMOUTH, AND CASS COUNTY. 

eyes, but on the 2 2d got out and selected our claims for a home. On that 
day, April 22d, I found snow drifts, in ra\nnes, over twenty feet deep, 
which were not thawed away till late in May. 

Such was my introduction to Nebraska ami Cass County. 



A JUSTICES COURT OF (ASS COUNTY IN 1857. 

BY A. L. CHILL). 

In August, of 1867, a Justice of the Peace, just elected for the first 
time, who for the present must be nameless, had convened his first court. 
(Please forget just now the old old story which, by some is attributed to 
"Our Dan," of the "mighty mean men who could get office here." 

The plaintiff had alleged that the defendant had done and performed 
aets and deeds in violation of the statute made and provided in such 
rases. 

A summons, commanding the Constable to bring the offender into 
court, then and there to answer for his misdeeds, had been issued, as also 
for a jury of six "true and good men, freeholders of the County," to aid 
and assist the Court in the punishment of the outlaw. 

Jury and witnesses were very solemnly sworn, and the Court — with a 
deep sense of the gravity and weight of responsibility resting upon its 
shoulders as a "Magistrate," and perhaps an occasional thought of 
the rulings and decisions then and there to be made, as precedents in the 
future courts of Nebraska — was extracting from the witnesses mainly 
what they did not know, when a sudden "bow," "wow" "wow" of the 
attending dogs, who were holding a court of their own in the adjoining 
brush, and a cry of "wild cat" broke upon the ear. 

An instant delivery of that courtroom followed. Before a second 
breath could be drawn jury, witnesses, constable, parties and spectators 
were in the brush in hot pursuit. And the court, in all its dignity, with a 
question half propounded, sat — alone, and — adjourned. 

The wild cat, as defendant in the other court, that is, the dog court, 
had but a poor show. It was soon laid upon the door steps. 

The court re-convened and the case proceeded to judgment. 



HISTORY OF PLATTSMOUTH, AND CASS COUNTY. 69 

A PIONEER'S PIE. 

BY A. L. CHILD. 

In early days in Indiana I witnessed a sad failure in an old toper to 
obtain Ins accustomed stimulus through imagination, when the hard 
hearted liar tender refused to supply the accustomed material. 

"Well," says the poor fellow, after grave consideration of the whole 
subject, "if you won't, you wont. But Til go through the motion any- 
how." And taking up an empty bottle and a i^lass, he carefully tipped the 
bottle, while holding the glass high between the light and his eye, that 
he might get the exact quantity, lie turned on till, by close observation 
and measure, he concluded he had got exactly '-three fingers." Then 
carefully replacing the bottle, lie turns round with his back against the 
counter for support, with feet extended and braced, he slowly raised the 
glass to Ins lips, tipped it up, held his breath and swallowed rapidly; 
then with repeated "Hems" to clear his throat of the fiery draught, slowly 
replaces the glass and waits :i moment for the accustomed sensation. 

Pool- fellow! It was a total failure, for with a very emphatic and 

"just as I expected," with drooping head and dejected air he left the room. 

In a somewhat similar manner, but with a different result, in May of 
1857, I supplied myself with a, dinner. I was alone upon my claim, doing 
mv own cooking, dishwashing, etc., building a home and fixing up things 
generally for the soon expected family, which had been left behind. 

On Sunday morning, after a badly relished breakfast of bread and 
bacon, I found myself strongly craving some kind of a desert. I had 
been unable to procure fruit of any kind whatever, or anything resem- 
bling a desert. After some thought I made up my mind also "to go 
t h rough the motion." 

I went out into my imaginary orchard, upon the creek, and gathered 
some tender grape vine shoots just shooting out, and some wood sorrel, 
also young and tender, returned, made up my crust, put in my Nebraska 
fruit, a little hot water, dredged in some Hour, and sat down to bake my 
pie. 

My dinner that day was an entire success. My first, second, and 
last course was grape vine and sorrel pie. I will add. for the benefil of 
the ladies. I have not yet taken out a patent for my "pioneer pie." 



70 HISTORY OF PLATTSMOUTH, AND CASS COUNTY. 

EARLY DAYS IN NEBRASKA. 

BY Til OS. THOMAS. 

In Jul}', of 1856, I crossed the Missouri river, north of the mouth of 

the Platte, and then crossed the Platte at Carlisle's ferry at Cedar Island, 
north of which was the main channel of the Platte at that time. ( !arlisle 
dumped me out of his canoe on the north side of the Island, saying there 
was little or no water running on the south side, which I reached by 
scrambling through the brush and briars. I then drew off my boots and 
waded through, finding the water not over knee deep. I then climbed 
the rocky bluffs, watching the cliffs and holes of the rocks for snakes, the 
scent of which was strong and sickening. 

After climbing some eighty feet, I reached the top of a narrow ridge, 
across which was a traveled path toward the southeast. Across a deep 
ravine I saw, and made for, a log cabin. On reaching it I was met at the 
door by a friendly little woman, who said, in answer to my inquiries, that 
she was not acquainted with the claims taken up near by. Mr. Ilahn, her 
husband, soon came in and referred me to old Mr. Wm. Craig, one mile to 
the west. On reaching Mr. Craig's I found a very friendly old couple, 
under whose hospitable roof I fared sumptuously. Two miles south of 
this I took a claim, where Nicholas Holmes now lives. But preferring a 
claim on the ground ot the old Otoe village, one mile east, over which I 
passed on my way to Plattsmouth,and meeting the claimant on the road, I 
bought the claim and moved onto it with my wife and family, on the 
1st of September, IS")!!. That night my wife and I slept in the wagon, 
and the boys took a larger held bed, with the canopy of Heaven for the 
curtains. Even this, our first night, did not pass without a visitor, a large 
black rattlesnake; and several days after a number of hungry Indians. 

Both snakes and Indians were much more plentiful than pleasant. I 
found several neighboring pioneers almost or quite out of provisions, and 
divided out to them, till, in turn, I was nearly out too; and in November 
sent the boys over into Iowa for further supplies. They could not return 
for some time as the slush ice prevented. Day after day I went down to 
the river, but there was no crossing: and the meal barrel was almost 
empty. I then wished for the old comfortable home left in Indiana. At 
length there was an opening in the ice, the boys with the teams were in 
sight and waiting on the further bank; and we put out, went over and 
met them. As we were returning across the river we saw the ice again 
coming down, and likely to sink or, at best,carry us away with it. "Work, 
for Cod's sake, work!" cried out Mickelwait, "or we are lost"; and work 



TIISTORY OF PLATTSMOUTH, AND CASS COUNTY. 71 

wo did with a will, and barely escapingthe threatening catastrophe,reach- 
od Nebraska in safety. This safe return, and our success, relieved many 
anxious hearts, and thankfulness and joy again returned. 

December 1st, 2d, and 3d, 1856, brought the heaviest snow storm 
upon us I ever witnessed. My little shanty saved many lives, not only of 
whites, but Indians, squaws and pappooses. Where my cow shed now 
stands I had one in 185('» with several tons of hay stacked on it. The 
snow drifted up and over it, and so hard and solid that a cow walked up 
over the shed and stack. The drift measured eleven feet in depth. 

In March, 1857, Jackson Todd and I started for Omaha to enter our 
claims; but the Platte river was full of ice and could not be crossed, so 
next day Jackson Todd; Capt. Archer, Timothy Gaskill, Ed. Todd and I 
crossed the Missouri river at Plattsmouth, went up above the mouth of 
the Platte and then crossed over to Nebraska again. The ferryman with 
his skiff then loft us and returned. As we went forward we found our- 
selves inclosed by a bayou, connecting the Platte and Missouri, above us, 
aad that wo were upon an Island, from which there was no means of es- 
cape but to strip and wade, if wo could, or swim if the water was too deep 
to wade. The water was full of Moating ice, and the prospect was neither 
pleasant nor inviting. Wo stripped, went in, and succeeded in crossing 
the bayou. We reached Omaha next day, entered our lands and started 
back for homo. Wo did not care to try the same track back and again 
swim the bayou, although wo might find a worse crassing elsewhere; so 
wo made for Cedar Island, in the Platte, where, at the hazard of our lives 
in the floating ice, we succeeded in crossing all right, and were safe at 
homo for supper. 

A short time prior to this wo were startled by the appearance of a 
band of over one hundred Indians approaching our shanty, on the 
grounds of the old Otoe village. They made a fearful show, but passed 
on, doing no harm. They were hunting ponies taken from them by the 
whites. They camped for some three weeks on the Missouri river below 
Plattsmouth, found their ponies and then quietly left. 

In 1857 claim troubles became fearful. Notice was served upon us 
that the two boys must deed over eighty acres each to other parties, or 
"go over or into the Missouri river." We did neither, and hold the same 
lands yet, although nineteen years have since passed, and I am still left 
to subscribe the names of myself ami family, viz.; S. L. Thomas, James 
W. Thomas, Mary E. Todd, Cinderella Carter, Thomas J. and George W. 
Thomas, and mv wife. Susannah. 



(2 HISTORY OT? PLATTSMOUTH, .\X1> CASS COUNTY. 

A DREAM. 

BY A. L. CHILD. 

In the words of the old temperance song, 

"1 dreamed a dream the other night 1 ' 
whether waking, or sleeping, who knows? 1 cannot tell. Our waking 
and sleeping thoughts occasionally get so strangely mixed and tangled 
that we cannot separate them. 

In this dream the future had become thepast. Another hundred 
years of our national life had been turned over to the pages of history. 
The Centennial of 1970 was at hand. 

I was wandering over an unknown city. Some few features remind- 
ed me of Plattsmouth in 1876. A fine and noble building rose before me, 
into which men, women and children were passing. I followed the crowd, 
and found myself in a large and beautiful hall. Three or four apparent 
Secretaries, each with large record hooks before him, wv^^ sitting around 
a table. A President and two Vice Presidents occupied an adjoining 
elevated seat, The President was just announcing "the business next in 
order," and yon may imagine my surprise on hearing "The Historical 
Secretary will now read the Record of the Pioneers of INTO." 'With ear. 
eye and soul I listened to the acts, deeds, triads, and hardships of the old, 
old familiar names and associates. While this reading progressed I could 
not hut catch the exultant whispers and remarks from different parts of 
the hall, of "That was 1113 great, great, greal grandfather," "That was 
my great, great, great grandmother," and so on. A deep and intense in- 
terest held the audience of thousands. They were living, doing, and 
act ing in the far, far past. 

The President then announce, 1 the next regular business as the 
"Geneological Record." "Aha" thought 1, "what now? what new wrinkle 
is this?" When a second Secretary opened his Record and produced a 
lot of charts, and, placing them in a conspicuous position on the wall. 
traced the progress and descent of the posterity of these old Pioneers 
down to the then present lime, with dates and place of marriage, ami 
births of children, grandchildren, great, great <fec. I could not hut ob- 
serve the glow of interest and exultation in the faces of the members 
present as their geneological lines came down from the "Blood Royal" of 
the pioneers. 

The thought hashed upon my mind, oh! if we in our old time could 
have had such charts and such records, how many of the millions of 
treasure withheld from us. the just ami rightful heirs, we might have 



niSTORY OF PLATTSMOCTH, AND CASS COUNTY. 73 

possessed and enjoyed; but failed to obtain for lack of them. And still 
further, with what interest we should have followed up such charts and 
lines of descent to see who and what our forefathers were; as also of their 
acts, deeds, and histories. 

The next order was for "Miscellaneous Business."' Whereupon an 
elderly member arose and stated that a stranger, from a distant State, had 
made a claim upon his homestead, alleging that it had originally been en- 
tered by fraud and perjury, and of course the entry was null and void; 
but that he had just made a legal entry of it and demanded possession. 
Something in the look, tone and manner at once aroused in me a deep in- 
terest, and I felt a chill run over me, in my anxiety for the fate of the 
poor man, when I recollected my own predictions of old, that the time 
would come some day when the fraudulent and perjured entries of my day 
would work ruin and destruction to the innocent holders of a large part 
of our homesteads. I therefore with deeper interest if possible watched 
the proceedings in this case. A third Secretary was called upon for in- 
formation. He responded by opening his ponderous record and read the 
whole story of the entry and all its circumstances; the subsecpient trans- 
fers with all the particulars; and I felt much relieved to find that all was 
right and safe. Yet, hut for this record and proof the poor man would 
haye lost his all. 

My joy was so great over this triumph of my own great, great grand- 
son, that I awoke? or fell asleep? Who knows which? 



GENEALOGK AL RECORD. 

BY Til OS. THOMAS. 

As the object of the Pioneers 1 Association is to collect knowledge 
and information of the past for, not only present use, but for future gen- 
erations, will not its value to our children be increased as it reaches far- 
ther into the past? 

With this view, I record a few items that remain to me of times be- 
fore Nebraska was. 

Some few years past 1 750 three brothers of the name of Thomas 
left Wales for America. They landed in New Jersey, where one remain- 
ed, while the other two subsequently passed on; one to Virginia and the 
other to South Carolina. A son of the one remaining in New Jersey, by 
name of Titos. Thomas, at the age of fifteen years, entered the Revolu- 



74 HISTORY OF PLATTSMOUTH, AND CASS COUNTY. 

tionary army under Gen. Washington. For a lime he was employed in 
cutting out the printed sheets of the Continental Currency; after which 
he was mustered into a Light Horse company, in which he served to the 
end of the war. 

After the war closed he married Mary Ann Grimes, who was of Irish 
descent. With a family of two sons and one daughter he subsequently 
concluded to move west of the Alleghany Mountains. In that day no 
wagon roads over the mountains existed, and all conveyance was made by 
packing. One horse was loaded with bed and clothing and the wife (my 
grandmother) with the infant daughter in her arms. Another horse with 
camp equipage and food, and a creel or basket on each side. In one 
basket set my Uncle Benjamin, and in the other my father, Samuel, the 
elder of the two. My grandfather, with his rifle, led the train, on old 
Indian trails, up the valley and over the mountains. Bears, wolves, pan- 
thers, wild cats, deer, A r c, were often seen, from which the old rifle fur- 
nished ample supplies of meat, Days and weeks passed into months be- 
fore they reached the valleys of the Monongahela and Youghiogheny 
rivers, between which they settled, about thirty-five miles from Pittsbuig. 

My mother's father's name was Abram Larue, of French descent, 
and his wife of Scotch. He also served through the Revolutionary war; 
and had settled on Big Redstone Creek, fifteen miles from my grand- 
father Thomas'. My father, Samuel Thomas, married his daughter, Eliz- 
abeth Larue; and in 1817 he started for still further west. 

With my mother, three sisters, older, and two brothers j'ounger than 
myself, we got on board of a flat boat at Monongahela City, and floated 
down past Pittsburg into the Ohio, and down to Bridgeport, on the west 
bank of the river. There we landed and went by team to Fairview, one 
mile south of which, in Guernsey County, was our stopping place, which 
we reached in March, 1817. 

It was there I married Susanna Carruthers, and from whence, on Sep- 
tember 1st, 1837, I started with my wife and one son, Samuel L., for 
Grant County, Indiana. We passed through Springfield, Ohio, and then 
across the Black Swamp county. The deep water and mud and the rough 
log bridges on to which we had to climb and then jump off from into the 
mud, slush and water, up to the wagon bed, were rather unlike the Rail 
Road traveling of to-day. The incidents of this journey made too deep 
an impression on my mind to be soon erased. Twenty-two days' travel 
landed us in the thick woods in Washington Township, Grant County, 
Indiana, five miles east of Marion. We remained there some ten years, 
and cleared up a heavy timbered farm. 



HISTORY OF PLATTSMOUTH, AND CASS COUNTY. 75 

Iii 1847, with my wife and six children, one having been laid in the 
cemetery, I moved to Wabash County, Indiana, and there also cleared up 
another farm of heavy timber; built a frame house, a large frame barn, 
and had raised a fine bearing orchard. But in addition to this we had 
the ague, and more of it than we could stand. Six of us were shaking at 
once. We had already laid two little girls in the Wabash Cemetery, who 
died within four days of each other. No, we could endure it no longer. 
We must find a more healthy country. So in April of 185(5, we started 
for Dallas County, Texas; but proceeded southward only to Bates County, 
Missouri, where, from continued ague in nearly the whole family, as also 
severe sickness of myself, we made a square turn to the north, and on 
June 22d, 1856, reached Glenwood, Iowa, which we again left in Septem- 
ber following for Cass County, Nebraska. 



THE WOMEN OF NEBRASKA. 

I'.V A PIONEER. 

We hear much of the adventures, trials, &c, of the Pioneer men of 
Nebraska, hut, somehow, very little of the women. And yet, in my rec- 
ollection of the struggles of the day, she kept her end of the yoke gen- 
erally up even, and in many cases carried it decidedly ahead. True, the 
circumstances of the situation did not often place her in the foreground, 
in the prominent position of the man, hut her patient and untiring help- 
fulness and perseverance often accomplished more than his more noisy 
labors. And again, in a search for true heroism, while ^we may find man 
under the sudden approach of peril or danger, or the stimulant of a great 
or hazardous undertaking, brave courageous and unyielding; is there less 
of the true ring of the hero in in the persevering and uncomplaining en- 
durance of privation, hardship, toil and loneliness, unaided by the stimu- 
lants and excitements so necessary to arouse the man to action? I think 
not. 

But try the woman in the same field with the man, arouse her by the 
same stimulant under which he rushes into action, and you may see the 
hero pale before the heroine. 

I give two or three incidents, hoping they may act as reminders, and 
bring out others more to the point. 

I might first introduce the "Lady" of the day, who in her intense zeal 
for the public interest, pulls her dress back till it is scarcely visible in 
front, and stretches it out behind into the compound hoc and cart of the 



7G HISTORY OF PLATTSMODTH, AND CASS COUNTY. 

street scavenger, thereby saving the city large bills for removing the offal, 
filth, and mud. How many men could we, by all the combined means of 
which we can think, induce to undertake and persist in such herculean 
and repulsive labors? 

But I have digressed. My plea is for "Woman." 

A wife and mother, well known to us all and more especially to 
friend Thomas, residing, in 1857, on Four Mile Creek, in the absence of 
the men of the family and surrounded only by her children, saw six In- 
dians, on their ponies, approaching the house, armed with the usual bows 
and arrows and one gun.. The early starting blue grass in the enclosed 
front yard offered a more tempting feed for the ponies than the dry and 
burned prairies, and the Indians opened the gate for their ponies to enter 
and feed. This not being as satisfactory to the woman as to the Indians, 
she stepped to the door and forbade it; but they persisted in getting the 
ponies in, when a fiery stripling of a boy with a toy gun raised it against 
them. The savages, ready to improve the chance for a safe light, patted 
their bosoms and dared him to fire, and began to handle their arms. The 
boy, at once seeing his own weakness, ran into the house, but returned in 
an instant with a more effective revolver, ready to do his best. At the 
sight of this weapon the arrows were fixed and the bows bent. But the 
woman was there; she saw that a general massacre was pending the mo- 
tion of a finger. Seizing the boy, she sternly commanded him to return 
the revolver to the house. He obeyed. She then as sternly commanded 
the Indians to "Puckachee," begone. Quelled and disarmed by her bra- 
very they turned and left. 

Again, on another o '.casion several In bans cam > into the house, one 
of whom, a large stalwart fellow, was adorns 1 (in his own estimation at 
least) with a large quantity of beads. The little girls of the family im- 
portuned the mother to get som3 of thy b>als for them. The mother at 
length offered a silver ring for a "swap." The Indian examined the ring, 
and grunted "good," "swap," put the ring upon his linger, and started to 
leave, ring, beads and all. But with the woman this move was "no good." 
Seizing a heavy iron rod, she raised it over his head, and with her eye 
fixed upon his, sternly demanded "ring," or "swap"; at the same time, 
with the iron still over his head, she seized the ring and stripped it from 
his finger. To be conquered, and perhaps struck, by a pale face squaw 
was too much for the "brave." He yielded, and with "good," "good," 
"swap," pulled off his beads and handed them over, took the ring and 
left, 



HISTOIIY OF PLATTSMOUTH, AND CASS COUNTY. 77 

One more and I am through. Many present will remember Horace 

Sheldon and his wife, who, in early day's, settled near Cedar Creek in this 
County. You will also recollect that in size and weight they were quite 
unequal. Had she put him in her pocket it might have been somewhat 
overfull, but not much. But, like many small men. he did not lack in big 
words, or big deeds, either, if you were willing to take his own account 
of them. 

In 1859 the waters of Cedar Creek were very high, and he attempted 
to cross it in a wagon with his wife and child. The current overset the 
wagon and away they all went pell mell down stream some thirty or forty 
feet and brought up against a pile of drift, from which they soon reached 
land without much damage. In Sheldon's recital of the fearful perils and 
wonderful deeds by which he had escaped, one of his hearers interrupted 
him with, "But, Horace, where was your wife and child all this time?" 
Stretching himself up, and throwing out one hip, "Where!" and giving 
his hip a resounding slap, "She was thai'." 

Mrs. Sheldon's account, which was generally received witli much 
more credit, was, that she dragged Horace out from under the wagon bed, 
and up onto the drift, and then left him to take care of himself. 



EARLY NEBRASKA. 

BY .TNO. A. MACMTJKPHY. 

This article was read by Mr. MacMurphy from a portion of a history 
of Burt County, Nebraska, printed in the Omaha Tribune in 1871. Al- 
though not strictly about Cass County, it is so true a picture of early 
scenes that were applicable to all portions of the State, that it was very 
appropriate as a part of the old settlers' records of Nebraska. The land 
speculations of 1857, the early elections, the "Indian scares," the staking 
out of town lots, building of the Block House, and history of the "claim 
clubs" are as true of Cass County as of Burt. 

"The first settlements made in Burt County were in the year 1855. 
The country was very wild then, in fact, the Indian title to the land had 
just been extinguished, and the Indians themselves were placed on their 
reservation during the spring of the next year. The land was not sur. 
veyed by Government yet, but a number rushed in and took claims, by 



78 HISTORY OF PLATTSMOUTII, AND CASS COUNTY. 

guess, as to boundaries. Some towns were laid out in this year, but it 
was not until the succeeding spring, of 1857, when the great rush was 
made, and then it seemed as if the whole floating population of the 
United States came up the Missouri river and "located" on its hanks, in 
either Kansas or Nebraska. This county got its share, and towns and 
cities sprung up by the magic wands of little stakes, a piece of chain, a 
compass and a long-legged surveyor, in every nook and cranny of the 
land. All that was necessary was to arrange a "company" under some 
tree, — and from one man to a dozen comprised a company — "chalk out" a 
map, "write up" some certificates of shares, and then "away," to sell our 
eastern friends a fortune and a home. 

"It was thus that Woodville and Central City, on the river were laid 
out; and one fellow came on in the winter of 1856, ami froze to a piece of 
ground which lie called "Hudson, 11 He mapped her down in fine style. 
and then lit out for New York, where he sold enough to clear .$20,000. it 
is said. Ail this time he had not a shadow of a title to the land. After 
it was surveyed he did obtain a title, we believe, hut not until it had be- 
come a hyeword among the people, "Have you ary a lot in Hudson?" His 
town site, along with the two others above mentioned, are now in the Mis- 
souri river or over in Iowa. A single, solitary, long wooden warehouse, 
half hanging over the hank, long marked the spot where "Woodville" was 
expected to sprout and grow. 

"During the whole of '57-' 8, squatters moved in, and settlers(?) came 
from the East; hut the wildest speculation reigned, and real or very last- 
ing improvements were seldom, if ever, made. Very little ground was 
broken up, no fencing built, and no small grains of any account sown. 
Corn was raised in patches; hut trading corner lots, playing euchre, and 
"filing 11 on claims for speculation, were the principle occupations of the 
inhabitants, and the line arts languished! 

"Numbers of young men, "baches, 11 they were called, herded together 
in the towns, but very I'ew men of means, or with families, came into the 
county during these two years. Then came the crash of hard times, 
from 1857 to 1860. Ali who had money enough left to get home did so; 
and the rest, like "lone buffalo," straggled around awhile, and then hunt- 
ed up some man's daughter of the few that were here, ami made her his 
wife, or else went cast and got one somehow. When he returned he gen 
erally settled down to legitimate work, opened up a farm or learned (?) a 
trade, and from that time the real improvement of the country began, 
though it was very hard times and rough work with many during all the 



HISTORY OF PLATTSMOUTH, AND CASS COUNTY. 70 

years up to about 1S(>3, when they seemed to make one gigantic jump to 
life and vigor, and from that time to this, first class prosperity seems to be 
thelotof all the inhabitants of Burt County." 



"Some time in 1864, Ben. R. Folsom, well known in Nebraska, con 
ceived the idea of laying out a town up north, somewhere, and in Decem- 
ber of the same year the lirst election was held in the Territory of Ne- 
braska. It being very important that enough members should be elected 
from the northern counties to carry certain measures, Mr. Folsom and 
some others went up in two wagons to a spot on Cuming Creek, supposed 
by them to be in Burt County, and held an election there under a tree. 
Folsom was returned to the Council, and Mr. Purple, with some one else, 
as Representatives. 

"It is said thai anoth sr party came down from Sioux City, but not 
knowing the country very well, th sy got on an island in the Missouri river, 
opposite the Omaha Reserve, and held their election there. Folsom and 
his men having been within twelve miles of the county they were supposed 
to represent, wvvv allowed seats, and during this session, as one of the 
results of this visit Tekama was hatched and born In March, 18.")."), it, 
was incorporated as a town, and in July, of 1859 the "site" was bought 
in by Mr. Folsom, and the title made perfect to all lots, <fec. 

"In IS.").! a straggling hand of young "'Omaha braves" came along, 
and having nothing else to do, they exercised their horses and lungs ex- 
tensively about the shanties and huts of the settlers. A huge "scare" 
followed: men hustled their horses and cattle together, harnessed the one 
and yoked the other to their wagons, got the women and children in, and 
their truck aboard, and made tracks for Chiming City, the nearest settle- 
ment. The Indians, seeing their absurd fright, in mere wantonness pur- 
sued. Faster flew the wagons, louder groaned the women, harder cursed 
the men; bedduig, bureaus and tools were heaved overboard to lighten 
their load, and yet the "scare" grew worse anil worse. At last the In- 
dians halted, rode back, and gathering up the white settlers' castaway 
articles, they put them all in a pile, safely, and left to crow over their 
exploit, 

"The settlers returned, held a town meeting, and "resolved" — not to 
be scared again ; but for better security, they detremined to build a "block 
house" of cottonwood logs, and within its ample limits to seek shelter and 
defence, should ever a "red" again come around.'" 



80 HISTORY OF PLATTSMOUTH, AND CASS COUNTY. 

AN EARLY BLOCK HOUSE. 

Although the "block house" was 1 hi i It in the first, place by the set- 
tlers as common property, and as a protection against the Indians, after 
Folsom obtained it, there is scarcely a use that four walls and a roof can 
serve for, in a new country, that the old house has not been put to. It has 
been court house, schoolhou.se, jail, church, ball room, bar room, county 
clerk's office, and in short father and mother, as we may say, to almost all 
the important transactions of Burt county for ten long years: as many of 
her laws, much of her mirth, and a great deal of her history was hatched 
and bred within the walls of the Old Block House. 

What stories those old logs could tell, of friendly greetings, of kind 
words, of foul blows and men's strong passions. Stories of love and court- 
ship are garnered under the old bark, and the trust and faith, good humor 
and endurance, of more than one married pair have been severely tried be- 
neath its roof. The Moors have echoed to merry feet in the dance, the 
walls have heard the grave sounds of judicial reproof and warning, the 
minister's solemn words of faith and hope have been heard there, the wail 
and wassail of many a riotous crew, and the slow and sorrowful feet of the 
mourners, as they bore the dead of our love away, have echoed in the nar- 
row old fashioned hall. 

Little reeks the old house of all this now, but square and strong, and 
high, she still shows her broadsides to the keen north west wind that 
comes down from the Rock} 7 mountains with a roar, and shelters many a 
weary traveler from the blast, for a "hotel" is kept there still, and will be, 
I suppose, as long as one log shall rest above another, of the old roost. 

PLAYING ''SEVEN UP" FOR HENS. 

During one of the long, lonesome winters, when every kind of busi- 
ness was suspended, the choice spirits gathered in the old blockhouse, and 
played "seven up" for hens — no money being in the country. They caught 
the hens and brought them along — as they knew each other pretty well(?) 
A hen a "corner" was the rule. The best of the joke was, that but one of 
the part}' owned many hens, and he was a good player. He would win his 
hens, get pretty sleepy maybe, take them home without looking at them 
very particularly, and turn them out. That night the boys would steal 
them, ami the next day they would play for the hens over again. They 
kept this up for a long while. 

But the principal addition to the town in the spring of '57 came in one 
body, and mostly from New York City. R. G. Pierce and some New York 
men bought out sixty shares of the town site, from the three original pro- 



HISTORY OF PLATTSMOUTH, AND (ASS COUNTT. 81 

prietors, and then induced us beautiful a party of Western green-horns to 
come out there as ever trod a new prairie. As the writer was one of that 
party, he will try and tell yon how it looked then. 

Days before we reached there, from the decks of the old steamer '•Oma- 
ha." we could see the town(?) Bold and grand it lay, glistening in an 
April sun, and wondrous odd and queer the bluffs looked to our eyes, pil- 
ed in fantastic shapes around it. Coming from a timbered country, where 
every variation of the earth's surface is not noticed so distinctly, it always 
seemed to me as il they were dropped there;, of som ; soft, loose substance 
originally, which was shaped by the air or other elements, and all at once 
froze in the position you see them at present. 

Against this warm hill-side were thousands of "sand-hill cranes," 
they told us, which made it white and shining, like a silver firmament wa- 
vering and hanging in the distance. Where they have gone to, I know 
not; but I do know that I saw them there, and that during that summer 
great numbers used to light on the bottoms below town, and we would 
creep down there to see them dance, and it is a positive fact that they can 
make out to "do" a pretty fair Arkansas cotillion. I have laughed till my 
sides ached, to see long legs and necks in a thousand grotesque attitudes, 
some almost human in style and vanity, and often wondered if they really 
knew "what they were doing." I suppose they thought the same of us, 
as white folks must have been scarce to the eye before our advent, and 
the cranes don't seem to have liked us overly well, as they have all left the 
country since our arrival 

We -bachs" continued to sleep in th • Chase mansion, but ate over at 
Thompson's. Poor Mrs. Thompson, how 1 have pitied her, since I have 
grown older, and know what must have been her trials, her fears, and her 
utter loneliness then. 

First the Indians annoyed her; at that time they had not the most re- 
motest idea of privacy, or the sanctity of a man's own dwelling. All the 
houses they had seen belonging to white men, were trading posts open to 
all, and their own wigwams contain from eight to ten families, and all are 
more or less common property, so by habit and usage they thought they 
had a right to march plump into any house, and squat down on the floor 
to smoke if they chose to. 

Then all our ways and habits were a curiosity, they would pick up 
every cooking utensil, examine her clothes, and if she shut the door, would 
flatten their noses against the window panes for hours and watch her work. 
The squaws were the worst for this, and generally kept guard over all of 
us during meal tunes to see how we ate. 



82 HISTORY OF PLATTSMOUTn, AND CASS COUNTY. 

We eight, big, strong men roamed over the prairies and came home 
with such appetites as completely overpowered our meek little landlady. 
Our fare was mostly potatoes and bread; more and more had she cook- 
ed, and yet we cleaned the platter and looked hungry. 

One day she cried — my heart bleeds for her now, and I believe I helped 
her cry then — bitter tears over it, and said so dolefully: "If I could only 
cook potatoes enough for them men once, I would die happy." She is dead 
now, and I sincerely hope has no more potatoes to boil. 

THE "CLAIM CLUBS." 

The land entered upon by those settlers at this time was yet un sur- 
veyed, no State or county officers existed, and from tins resulted a curious 
state of facts. People cannot exist without some form of law, and they 
soon organized themselves into a sort of "vigilance committee" for protec- 
tion and other purposes, but as internal troubles grew almost together out 
of disputes about land boundaries, and rights, they were called "Claim 
Clubs." 

They chose a "Captain" or Chief, Secretary, and some minor officers, 
and being grasping of land power, they laid down a rule, that under their 
law men could hold 320 acres of land, and there was a strong hope in the 
minds of many that they could induce the General Government to consent 
to this, and make it legal, when the land came to be surveyed. It was to- 
tally unjust, illegal, and useless, but was law for the time that had to he 
obeyed, and many bitter quarrels never healed, and many a life lost was 
the product of the old "Claim Laws" of Kansas and Nebraska. Men 
would come in knowing the real law, and jump the squatter's odd 100 
acres. In such case he was warned away by the - k ( Hub" three several times, 
and if he did not cease his claim then, the Club were "turned out" under 
their Captain, and he was forcibly ejected, even if it cost life. They were 
bound to do this by oath to that effect, as they had a "Constitution, By- 
Laws" and land offices, with "records," and places and times for "filing 
on" lands; all arranged Government fashion, except the 320 acre clause. 
Sometimes rival "Claim Clubs" came in contact on some boundary line, 
and then the "devil was to pay." The "Club" was once called out to put 
old man Miller off. He lay behind the logs with a loaded rifle, the muz- 
zle of which could be seen through the chinks. As he didn't scare worth 
a cent they finally compromised. 

Perhaps a slight notice of one of the first traders who ever went up 
the Missouri River may not be amiss to people of Cass County. I allude to 



niSTORY OF PLATTSMOUTH, AND CASS COUNTY. 83 

PETER A. SARPY, 

who died here in 1805. Sarpy kept the first trading post on the Omaha 
Reserve, built in the fall of '56. The Omaha Indians received a large an- 
nuity then, payable every spring and fall, and at these times, Mr. Sarpy, 
his half breed interpreters and Frenchmen, (einploj^ees), would come up 
there, and for a few days it was just about the liveliest town you ever saw. 
At that time the Indians u-sually spent all L he money they received in three 
or four days after "payment." The traders stood up at their rough coun- 
ters day and night while the trade lasted, and took in thousands of dol- 
lars of gold. 

When the money was spent and the Indians gorged with fresh beef, 
blankets, trinket; and coffee, sugar and tobacco, then and not till then did 
Mr. Trader take a high old spree. Stripped to the buff, often, with a whole 
bolt of calico for a "breech-cloth," your old fashioned "Indian Trader" 
promenaded the little village, and woe to the rash Indian or green white 
man who then and there interfered. The spree like the trade lasted sev- 
eral days and nights continuously. Then the goods left, if any, were pack- 
ed in wagons, the gold securely strapped about them or in a safe place, 
and away went the trailer until another payment. Chief among these was 
the subject of this sketch. 

CLEMENT LAMBERT. 

The last of the three, was also a St. Louis Creole, of French extrac- 
tion, a cousin of Sarpy's, and at the earliest period known of, was an In- 
dian trader, either for himself, Sarpy or "The Company.'' He had all 
the characteristics of' the old French stock of "Indian men," and was, and 
is, a "character" as original and curious as any of the abnormal growths 
of this country; caused by its rapid progress, and constant mixing of dif- 
ferent nations and elements together. 

Lambert accompanied Fremont, as his Lieutenant, on his first expe- 
dition to the Rocky Mountains, from whence he obtained the name of the 
"path-finder" though Lambert thinks had it not been for a few plucky 
Frenchmen, the path would never have been found, Fremont to the con- 
trary nevertheless, notwithstanding. He was cotemporary with "Kit Car- 
son" as a guide and scout, and better known, and of wider fame at the set- 
ting out of that expedition than even the renowned "Kit" himslf. Lam- 
bert's fiery temper and French disposition stood in the way of his advance- 
ment, and the result was, that on the return of the cavalcade to Sarpy's 
post, Lambert turned "Trader" again and has not been heard of, while 



84 HISTORY OF PLATTSMOUTH, AX1> ('ASS COUNTY. 

Carson became a Government "scout" of fame, was made a Colonel in the 
regular army, and died Governor of New Mexico. 

Lambert's store. 

It was in his store that the early frolics were held, some of the town 
Councils, and around his doors the "Claim Club" gathered in force, and 
took a final drink before they marched to dispossess some aspirant for 
•■]<')()" acres of their (his) land. He claims to have built the second cabin in 
the town, and well do I remember it. It was of rough Cottonwood logs, 
about 18x22, with a short counter across one end, and four rough shelves 
behind it. One half the space in front of the counter, in the spring of '57, 
was piled to the ceiling with buffalo robes, otter, mink, coon, wolf, beaver, 
wildcat, swift, and other furs, and tanned elk and deer skins. They smell 
ed of all the various scents of the different beasts they grew upon. 

The Indians and traders filled the place with smoke, the occupants 
ate garlic and drank whiskey. It was always crowded, always dark, al- 
ways smoky, always full of the scent of "kinneykennick," and you could 
smell the thing as.far as you can hear a locomotive whistle,*if the door stood 
open. 

High on the top of a bluff, on the banks of the Missouri, above Decntur, 
a [\>w years ago could be seen the grave of the first white man and pioneer 
we have any record of in the country. It is 

\\Oo[)\s grave. 

lie was there before "Lewis & Clark's expedition up the Missouri," a 
trader and a trapper with the Indians. Wood creek is named after him, 
and its mouth is the initial point of the eastern terminus of the treaty line 
of the Indian reserve. He was burie 1 here in a fashion, half Indian ami 
half white man. In his blanket, with his valuable trinkets, gun, etc, by 
him, sitting up, with his face down the river, that he might see the "Mack- 
inaws" of the traders, as they came up the river at intervals, and brought 
him news of the great world he had left so long and so completely. 

1 have said that Sarpy started the first trading post in Nebraska. I 
think he did. Wood was the first trader however, but his "corral" could 
hardly be called a post, and his solitary habits did not allow of his beeom 
ing a large trader like Sarpy. 

S. T. Learning was the first mayor of Decatur, and Frank Welch is 
Mayor now ( 1871 ). Mr. Welch was also the first City Clerk, somewhere 
about 1858. 

Ejrratta.— Page 64, 6th line lor S. L. Johnson read S L. Thomas ; page G8. 1st lino of •■.Jus- 
tice Court" lor 1867 read 1*57 ; page 74. stli line from bottom, lor County read Country. 



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